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Sunday-School Movements 
in America 



Sunday-School 
Movements in America 



BY 



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MARIANNA C. BROWN 



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NEW York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

1901 



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THE LIBRARY OF 

CON6RESS, 
Two Copies REcervEO 

MAY. 1 1901 

CoryRtOMT ENTRY 

CLASS»^XXc. N*. 
COPY B. 



Copyright 1901 

by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



etc » » . 



« « « : « 



Preface 

It is not unusual for a student to enter college 
with more interest in his fellow-students than in 
his books, and it was this general interest in char- 
acter, rather than any especial concern about re- 
ligious matters, which led me to notice that la- 
mentable deficiency which Dr. Charles F. Thwing 
has so impressively described in his recent article 
entitled ** Significant Ignorance About the Bible, 
as Shown Among College Students of Both 
Sexes." Observations among university students, 
and among those holding the highest degrees, 
showed that advanced scholars are also often de- 
plorably deficient in biblical knowledge. Men 
who have enjoyed the advantages, not only of 
study, but of travel, of Christian parentage, and 
of church membership, seem hardly ashamed to 
show ignorance as to who David was, or who was 
the earthly father of our Lord. This seems in- 
credible, but it is fact. 

After leaving college the Sunday-school at- 
tracted my attention. Here I found class after 
class of scholars, both boys and girls, of all ages 
from eight to over twenty, studying year after 
year, and not learning such fundamental matters 

5 



6 Preface 

as what the first four books of the New Testa- 
ment are about. Scholars who have grown up in 
Sunday-schools in the best part of New York 
City reach the Bible classes, and even consider 
themselves ready to leave Sunday-school or to 
teach younger classes, without being able to tell 
correctly the story of the Nativity or the circum- 
stances of the institution of the Lord's Supper. 

The contemplation of this ignorance should 
arouse intelligent Americans. Yet worse than 
ignorance is to be found in many, if not in most 
Sunday-schools. Teachers and officers come late, 
act irreverently during the most solemn parts of 
the service, make promises which they never 
carry out, and in innumerable ways teach the most 
pernicious habits. Sometimes these evils are the 
result of indifference, but probably they are more 
frequently the result of an entire lack of appre- 
ciation on the part of well-meaning workers. 

It was largely my growing interest in this sub- 
ject which led me to a special study of the phil- 
osophy of education. Before forming an opinion 
as to the causes or remedies for the present condi- 
tion of religious teaching, I also decided, at the 
suggestion of Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, to make 
a careful study of Sunday-school movements in 
America. Accordingly, eight chapters of this dis- 
sertation are given to the uncolored history and 
description of those movements. Some of the ma- 
terial having never been In print, I was obliged to 
obtain it from the notes and verbal statements of 



Preface 7 

leading Sunday-school workers. In the conclu- 
sion detailed criticisms of the different move- 
ments have been omitted because it seemed more 
important at present to secure strong foundations 
for Sunday-school theory. 

My study of this subject, which is here pre- 
sented, was offered in partial fulfilment of the 
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philoso- 
phy in the Faculty of Philosophy at Columbia 
University. 



ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. EARLY AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.. 17 

New England colonists provided for relig- 
ious instruction without many Sunday- 
schools. 

The few Sunday-schools they had were for 
religious teaching. 

After the Revolution both religious and 
secular teaching were sadly neglected through- 
out the country. 

Sunday-schools on Robert Raikes' plan were 
then introduced. 

Before the end of the i8th century reaction 
began in favor of the present system of Sun- 
day-schools. 

n. THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UN- 
ION 26 

The movement introducing Sunday-school 
unions began at the close of the i8th century. 

The tendency towards cooperation culmi- 
nated in the formation of the American Sun- 
day-School Union, in 1824. 

The Union works chiefly to establish Sun- 
day-schools in needy places and to prepare 
suitable books for their use. 

It started the uniform lesson idea, publishes 
excellent periodicals, and introduced the Sun- 
day-school library feature. 
9 



lo Contents 

CHAPTER PAGl 

II. THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UN- 

ION — (Continued) : 

Its missionary work is pursued with great 
vigor throughout the United States, One 
man organized over i,ooo Sunday-schools. 

A meeting of this Union was the occasion of 
the origin of our great National Sunday- 
School Conventions. 

The Union is now free from debt and ac- 
tively engaged in its sadly needed work. 

III. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION SYS- 

TEM 53 

The First National Sunday- School Conven- 
tion was held in 1832. The second, held in 
1833, was really an adjourned meeting of the 
first. 

The system grew from local organizations. 
Its aim is to reach every Sunday-school 
worker. 

The Third and Fourth National Conventions 
were held in 1859 and 1868, respectively, and 
were highly successful. 

At the Fifth National Convention, held in 
1872, the Uniform or International Lesson 
System was inaugurated. 

International Conventions have been held 
every three years beginning with 1875. 

The system now includes a Primary Depart- 
ment, a Field Workers' Department, and a 
Home Department, besides the Lesson Com- 
mittee, the Executive Committee and the State 
Associations. 

IV. THE UNIFORM OR INTERNATIONAL 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON SYSTEM.. 77 

The American Sun day- School Union took 
the first important steps in opposition to the 



Contents 1 1 

CHAPTER ■pAGB 

IV. THE UNIFORM OR INTERNATIONAL 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON SYSTEM— 
(Continued) : 

custom of unlimited memorizing, and in 1825 
started the Limited Lesson Scheme. 

In 1865 the Rev. John H. Vincent brought 
the lessons practically to the present form. 

Mr. B. F. Jacobs led in efforts which re- 
sulted in the adoption of the Uniform Lesson 
System by the National Convention of 1872. 

Lesson Committees are appointed every six 
years. 

Their methods of work are simple and they 
have made but slight changes since the original 
plan. 

V. INSTITUTES AND THE CHAUTAUQUA 

MOVEMENT 91 

Unitarians seem to have held Sunday-school 
institutes in New England before the general 
movement began. 

Leading Methodists urged the plan and in 
1861 the first permanent Sunday-School 
Teachers' Institute was organized. 

The movement spread rapidly, but the bibli- 
cal museum feature waned. 

The First Chautauqua Assembly was a pro- 
tracted Sunday-school teachers' institute. 

The Chautauqua movement has developed 
into a unique system of education. 

Through these movements great impetus has 
been given to Sunday-school normal work. 

VI. THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

WORK 113 

The Baptists attend to their Sunday-school 
interests in a variety of ways. They have 



12 Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI. THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

WORK— (Continued) : 

played a prominent part in undenominational 
Sunday-school work, and a Baptist originated 
the first Infant Sunday-school. 

The Congregationalists have a distinct and 
energetic Sunday-school organization. They 
use chiefly the International lessons but offer 
an inductive series. They have an active Su- 
perintendents Union at Boston. 

The Episcopalians have only local Sunday- 
school associations. They offer and use a great 
variety of lessons, many of which are cate- 
chetical. They have high ideals of the Churches 
duty toward the young. 

The Friends have flourishing First-day 
schools and use a variety of lessons. 

The Hebrews differ among themselves in 
many ways, but they have a Sabbath-School 
Union and their schools require longer and 
more serious work than most Sunday-schools. 

The Latter Day Saints have from the first 
given Sunday-school instruction to the young. 
They have a Sunday-School Union, though 
Sunday-school work is remarkably well or- 
ganized under the State authorities. Much 
is done to direct and help the teachers. 

The Lutherans lay great stress on the 
Church nurture of the young, but have only 
recently given much attention to Sunday- 
schools. 

The Methodists have from the first been 
leaders in Sunday-school work. They have 
a large and progressive Sunday-School Union 
which gives especial attention to both mission- 
ary and normal work. Their General Con- 



Contents 13 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI. THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

WORK— (Continued) : 

ference requires and encourages the religious 
instruction of the young. They were virtually 
the starters of the Sunday- School Teachers' 
Institute movement, and lead in the Church 
Kindergarten and Home Department move- 
ments. 

The Presbyterians work mostly in the unde- 
nominational Sunday-school movements. They 
teach chiefly the International lessons and the 
Westminster Catechism. 

The Reformed Church uses chiefly the In- 
ternational lessons and the Heidelberg Cate- 
chism. It has always charged itself with the 
Christian training of the young. Recently 
increased attention has been given to Sunday- 
schools. 

The Roman Catholics have some of the best 
attended and most carefully organized Sun- 
day-schools in the country. The work is 
mostly catechetical. Their teaching appeals to 
the child nature. 

The Unitarians were among the first to or- 
ganize a Sunday- School Society. They early 
introduced graded lessons. Their teaching is 
not limited to the Bible, but is of a high grade 
intellectually. 

The Universalists were prominent in the 
earliest Sunday-school movements. They orig- 
inated the custom of " Children's Sunday." 
They are active in many lines. 

VII. THE BIBLE STUDY UNION 153 

The Bible Study Union originated in the 
practical Sunday-school work of the Rev. Mr. 



14 Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. THE BIBLE STUDY UNION — fCow- - 

iinued) : 

Blakeslee, and is based upon certain educa- 
tional theories. 

Its organization and business methods are 
simple. 

Its lesson system is complex and requires a 
fully graded Sunday-school. 

It has won the services of advanced scholars 
and has spread among many denominations 
and into distant lands. 

VIII. MISCELLANEOUS 164 

The subject of Sunday-school books and 
periodicals would fill a volume. 

A number of organizations direct and en- 
courage home Bible study. 

The Foreign Sunday- School Association 
does not influence the American Sunday- 
school system, but it does a good work. 

IX. CONCLUSION 173 

Part I. The Aim of the Sunday- School 173 

The aim of the Sunday-school should no 
longer be intellectual and moral, but spirit- 
ual. 

School can not supply the spiritual need. 
Home alone can seldom fully supply the 
spiritual need. 
The aim of the Sunday-school stated. 
Part one of the aim expanded. 
Part two of the aim expanded. 
Part three of the aim expanded. 

Part II. The Ultimate Aim of Education 186 

Present views. 



Contents 1 5 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. CONCLUSION— rCoMfww^^;; 

False method of reaching them. 

A philosophical aim. 

The relation of the Sunday-school to such 
an aim. 
Part III. The Greatest Need of the Present 
Stmday-School IQI 

The statement. 

Four essential qualifications of the Sun- 
day-school superintendent. 

Neglect of these qualifications. 

Acquisition of these qualifications. 

Use of these qualifications needed in the 
music. 

Use of these qualifications needed in the 
prayers. 

Use of these qualifications needed in the 
general exercises. 

Use of these qualifications needed in help- 
ing the teachers. 
Part IV. The Second Great Need of the Sun- 
day-School 213 

The statement. 

Three essential qualifications of the Sun- 
day-school teacher. 

Present lesson systems from this point of 
view. 

A pedagogical course of Bible study. 

The amount of time needed. 
Part V. The Final Problem 226 

The statement. 

Can the State help the Church? 

Neglected opportunities of the Church. 

The problem demands the united efforts 
of both State and Church. 



1 6 Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

APPENDICES 231 

I. American Sunday- Schools before 1800. 
II. Statistical report to the International Sun- 
day-School Convention, 1899. 

III. Denominational representation of the Inter- 

national Lesson Committee. 

IV. Relative number of International Lessons 

assigned to the various books of the Bible. 
V. The basis of agreement for the formation of 

the Bible Study Union. 
VI. The Constitution of the Bible Study Union. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 246 



Sunday-School Movements 
in America 

CHAPTER I 
XlAItLY AMEBICAN SUNDAY -SCHOOLS 

Eeligious Instmotion of the Early Settlers. 
The early New England settlers, unlike most of 
the settlers of the South, came to this country- 
inspired with religious impulses. They had been 
influenced by the great Reformation movements; 
they lived in the time of the Thirty Years' War; 
and their ministers were men of ability, some of 
whom were vainly urged to return and take part 
in the work of the Westminster Assembly. It 
was to be expected that people such as they, even 
though surrounded by the necessary hardships of 
their newly found home, would not neglect the 
religious education of their children. 

Probably the most energetic colonists were 
those of Massachusetts Bay, who came to Amer- 
ica in 1630 and established Harvard College in 
1636. With them we find the earliest provision 
for religious instruction, for an order of the 
General Court of Massachusetts, in 1642, and 
the Connecticut Code of 1650, provided : " That 

n 



1 8 Sunday-School Movements 

all masters of families do, once a week at least, 
catechise their children and servants in the 
grounds and principles of religion, and if any be 
unable to do so much, that then, at the least, they 
procure such children or apprentices to learn some 
short orthodox catechism, without book, that they 
may be able to answer the questions that shall be 
propounded to them out of such catechisms by 
their parents or masters, or any of the selectmen, 
when they shall have called them to a trial of 
what they have learned in this kind." ^ 

But the religious culture of the young was not 
left entirely to the masters of families. The 
" catechizing of youth " was found at that time 
among the common stipulations made with clergy- 
men. In different parishes and localities, how- 
ever, the ministers fulfilled this part of their du- 
ties in very different ways. In many cases relig- 
ious instruction was given to the children on the 
Sabbath, and in the church ; while in other cases, 
especially among the stricter Puritans, the chil- 
dren were gathered once a week, or once a month, 
at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, to be cate- 
chised. As early as 1860^ the Pilgrim Church, 
at Plymouth, passed a vote in these words: 
" That the deacons be requested to assist the 
minister in teaching the children during the inter- 
mission on the Sabbath." 

* Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, American Journal of Education, vol. XV, p. 705. 

'Historic View of Sabbath. Schools, E. H. Byington, 
Congregational Quarterly, vol. VII (1865), p. 21. 



Early American Sunday-Schools 19 

Besides the excellent system of family and 
church religious teaching in vogue among the 
Puritans, the schools of those days did much to- 
ward the spiritual training of the children. Pub- 
lic schools were established by law in Massachu- 
setts in 1647,^ ^^^ soon after in other New Eng- 
land colonies. As there was little sectarianism, 
religious influence was freely carried into the 
schools. One who attended a representative 
school of those days makes the interesting state- 
ment that the teacher " constantly prayed with us, 
every day, and catechised us every week." Even 
the books used in the schools were mostly of a 
religious character. 

First Sunday-Schools. Consequently, the few 
Sunday-schools dating back to the seventeenth 
century whose names have come down to us be- 
long to an entirely different movement from the 
Sunday-schools started at the close of the eigh- 
teenth century. The earliest Sunday-school on 
record seems to be one at Plymouth,* in 1669, of 
which the Rev. T. Robbins, D. D., in his address 
at Williams College, says that he has seen an au- 
thentic account. It is also known^ that in 1674 
a Sunday-school was established in Roxbury, 
Massachusetts, in the Congregational Church, at 

"History of Sunday- Schools and of Religious Educa- 
tion, Lewis G. Pray, 1847, p. 194-5- 

* Historic View, p. 21. 

* Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, p. 705. 



20 Sunday-School Movements 

which the boys and girls were instructed after 
morning service by men and women respectively, 
in the catechism and scriptures. Still, we have rea- 
son to think, that such Sunday-schools were not 
usual. The noted Dr. Bellamy, who labored at 
Bethlehem, Connecticut, from 1740 until his 
death, was not following a general custom when 
he habitually met the youth of his congregation 
for the purpose of catechetical and biblical m- 
struction, and induced the members of his church 
to assist in the work. Such Sunday-schools were 
not only exceptional, but they were unlike those 
started a century later, both in being strictly re- 
ligious and in being a development of the New 
England educational system. 

The first Sunday-school outside of New Eng- 
land of which we have knowledge, and probably 
the only one of any account existing before the 
Revolution, was the Dunker Sunday-school, at 
Ephrata, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. It was 
estabUshed by Ludwig Thacker, or Stiebker, in 
1 740,' and was conducted by him till 1777, when 
it was discontinued in consequence of the occupa- 
tion of the buildings of that community for hospi- 
tal purposes after the Battle of Brandywine. 

Raikes' System Introduced. After the Revolu- 
tion we find entirely new conditions. Ignorance 
and infidelity seemed to prevail. The Church and 

•The Universalist Origin of American Sunday- 
Schools, Richard Eddy, Universalist Quarterly, Oct., 
1882, p. 449. 



Early American Sunday-Schools 21 

the State had become separate. Sectarianism 
was increasing. In New England the practice of 
catechetical instruction by the clergy was almost 
entirely ^ abandoned. In the Middle and South- 
ern States, where there had never been much love 
for learning or ardor for piety, little had been 
done during the war for the education of the ris- 
ing generation. Accordingly, a new movement 
started, and it began in the place of greatest need, 
the Southern States. 

In 1786,® Bishop Asbury organized a Sunday- 
school on Robert Raikes' plan, at the house of 
Mr. Thomas Crenshaw, in Hannover county, 
Virginia. Other Sunday-schools were soon 
started. (See Appendix I.) In 1787, a Method- 
ist preacher in Charleston, South Carolina, con- 
ducted a Sunday-school for the African children 
of that city. In 1793,® a poor African woman, 
Katy Ferguson, knowing nothing of Raikes or 
of the Sunday-schools elsewhere, established one 
that was probably the first in New York City, for 
the benefit of the poor street children of the hum- 
ble quarter in which she lived. It is said that a 
school for secular instruction on Sunday was or- 
ganized in New York as early as 1791, and in- 
corporated in 1796. Between 1801 and 1804, Mrs. 
Isabella Graham and her daughter, wife of the late 

'History of Sunday- Schools, Pray, p. 199. 

" Yale Lectures on the Sunday- School, H. Clay Trum- 
bull, 1888, chap. 3, p. 122. 

'American Cyclopaedia, article on Sunday- Schools, 
vol. XV, p. 190, y 



aa. Sunday-School Movements 

Dr. Bethune, who had become famihar with the 
Enghsh Sunday-schools while traveHng in Eu- 
rope, estabHshed three of these schools in New 
York at their own expense. Mr. Samuel Slater, 
father of the cotton manufacture in America, es- 
tablished a Sunday-school, in 1797, in a room in 
his factory at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for the 
benefit of his operatives. 

The Sunday-schools of this movement usually 
had paid teachers, and the children were mostly 
the very ignorant and often vicious children of 
the lowest classes. The principal books used were 
the spelling-book and the hymn-book. 

Church Sunday-Schools. But while this was go- 
ing on, the churches had not entirely fallen asleep. 
In Washington, Connecticut, even in 1781, it was 
the custom for the elders of the church to gather 
the children around them upon the shaded green, 
in the summer Sabbath intermissions, and there 
instruct them in the Bible and the Assembly's cate- 
chism. Such schools existed in other sections of 
the country. In the Episcopal churches of Amer- 
ica the practice of giving religious instruction to 
the children, on Sunday, openly, in the church, 
has always been followed. 

John Wesley sympathized with the Sunday- 
school movement in Great Britain, and as early 
as 1784, in the first Discipline ^° we find, " Where 

" Growth of the Sunday- School Idea in Methodist 
Episcopal Church, J. M. Freeman, Methodist Quarterly 
Review, July, 1871, p. 400. 



Early American Sunday-Schools 23 

there are ten children whose parents are in the 
society, meet them at least one hour every week." 
In addition to this, every Methodist preacher be- 
fore being received was required to solemnly 
promise that he would diligently instruct the chil- 
dren. In 1790, we find the question asked, 
" What can be done in order to instruct poor chil- 
dren, white and black, to read ? " And the an- 
swer was, ** Let us labor, as the heart and soul of 
one man, to establish Sunday-schools in or near 
the place of public worship. Let persons be ap- 
pointed by the Bishops, Deacons, or Preachers, 
to teach gratis all that will attend, and have ca- 
pacity to learn, from six o'clock in the morning 
till ten, and from two o'clock in the afternoon till 
six, when it does not interfere with public wor- 
ship. The Council shall compile a proper school- 
book to teach them learning and piety." So 
classes of one hour were formed for the children 
of parents able to teach them, and other instruc- 
tion provided for poor children. 

About this time, too, the Universalists and 
other denominations began to arouse themselves 
on the Sunday-school question. As a natural re- 
sult of the increasing interest which the churches 
took in the matter, early in the nineteenth century 
there was a general reaction from paid to volun- 
tary teachers, and from secular to religious instruc- 
tion. This change, which has been attributed ^^ 

" Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday- School 
Union, p. 707. 



14 Sunday-School Movements 

to Wesley, commenced about 1809, and was simul- 
taneous with the transfer of the control of the 
schools from individuals to churches. 

Attendance of the Upper Classes. How an in- 
stitution, begun in the interests of the forlorn and 
uncared for, came early in this century to be not 
only patronized, but attended by the upper classes, 
remains an unsettled question. Dr. Lyman 
Beecher thought perhaps he had had an import- 
ant hand in bringing about this change.^^ He 
told Mr. Pardee that he saw the tendency of 
American Sunday-schools to be stamped as only 
for children of the poor and middle classes, as 
were the English Sunday-schools. He resolved 
to overthrow that system. He induced a number 
of the most prominent people in his congregation 
to send their children to Sunday-school. He took 
his. " And we all,'* he said, *' turned our labor 
and influence on the Sunday-school movement, 
and it gave an unheard-of impetus to our Sunday- 
school, and by means of the press and by letters 
and personal conversation the facts became 
known and met with almost uniform approval 
and adoption in our country, and the reform soon 
became complete.'* 

Rise of Unions. Meanwhile, another great 
change had begun. The Sunday-school idea was 
to be spread, and its work improved, and this was 

"The Sabbath- School Index, R. G. Pardee, 1868, p. 
18. 



Early American Sunday-Schools 25 

to be done more rapidly than individuals or even 
churches could do it. Accordingly, unions began 
to spring up, the earliest of importance being the 
" First-day or Sunday-School Society of Philadel- 
phia," organized January 11, 1791, for the pur- 
pose of establishing Sunday-schools. This was 
the forerunner of the great " American Sunday- 
School Union." 



CHAPTER II 

THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 

The First Sunday-School Association. Toward 
the close of the eighteenth century, some citizens 
of Philadelphia became impressed with the great 
need of a united effort to raise the condition and 
improve the lives of the boys of that city. There 
was in Philadelphia at that time no system of 
Free ^ schools. Accordingly, as a result of con- 
ferences between Bishop White of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, Dr. Benjamin Rush, an 
avowed Universalist, and Matthew Carey, an 
eminent Roman Catholic, a meeting of the citizens 
of Philadelphia was held, December 19, 1790, 
" for the purpose of taking into consideration the 
establishment of Sunday-schools for that city." 
At a meeting on the twenty-sixth of that month, 
a constitution was adopted for " The First-Day or 
Sunday-School Society," the first permanent as- 
sociation for the promotion of Sunday-schools in 
the United States, of which we have any authen- 
tic ^ record. 

*The History of Sunday- Schools and of Religious 
Education, Pray. p. 205. 

' Sunday-Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, American Journal of Education, vol. XV, p. 707. 

26 



American Sunday-School Union 27 

On the eleventh of January, 1791, the First- 
Day or Sunday-School Society was fully organ- 
ized. Bishop White was elected its first Presi- 
dent, and held the office until his decease. The 
object of the Society is stated as follows in the 
preamble to the Constitution : " Whereas, the 
good education of youth is of the first importance 
to society, and numbers of children^ the offspring 
of indigent parents, have not proper opportunities 
of instruction previous to their being apprenticed 
to trades ; and whereas, among the youth of every 
large city, various instances occur of the first day 
of the week, called Sunday, — a day which ought 
to be devoted to religious improvement, — ^being 
employed to the worst of purposes, the depravity 
of morals and manners : It is therefore the opin- 
ion of sundry persons, that the establishment of 
Sunday-schools in this city would be of essential 
advantage to the rising generation ; and for effect- 
ing that benevolent purpose they have formed 
themselves into a society." ^ The constitution re- 
quired that the instruction given in the schools 
established by the organization, or receiving its 
aid, should be confined to '' reading and writing 
from the Bible and such other moral and religious 
books as the Society may, from time to time 
direct." 

After petitioning the legislature in vain for the 
establishment of Sunday-schools as free schools, 

• The Universalist Origin of American Sunday- 
Schools, Eddy, Universalist Quarterly, Oct., 1882, p. 
453. 



28 Sunday-School Movements 

the Society raised the necessary funds for com- 
pensating the teachers, by voluntary contribu- 
tions, and three schools were opened during the 
first year, each with nearly two hundred scholars. 
By 1800 more than two thousand * pupils had 
been admitted. In lyqy the Society obtained an 
act of incorporation, under which it continued its 
work up to the year 18 16, when Sunday-schools 
were established on the present voluntary system. 
From that time it has applied the income of the 
small fund it possessed to the purchasing of books 
for needy Sunday-schools in Philadelphia and its 
environs, and so still continues its usefulness. It 
is stated on good authority, that many of the most 
worthy citizens of Philadelphia were indebted to 
this Society for most, if not all, of the education 
which they ever received.^ 

Other Early Unions. During this time several 
less important societies of the kind were formed. 
Among them was the Evangelical Society, started 
1808, for promoting Sabbath-evening schools in 
Philadelphia, with volunteer teachers.® In 1809 
a systematic Sunday-school movement was organ- 
ized in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In 181 1, the 
Rev. Robert May, from London, gave a new start 

*Umversalist Origin of American Sunday-Schools, p. 

454. 

' History of Sunday-Schools and of Religious Educa- 
tion. Pray, p. 207. 

" Sunday- Schools, by E. W. Rice; Schaff-Herzog, 
Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. IV, p. 2265. 



American Sunday-School Union 29 

to Sunday-schools in Philadelphia, which proved 
the beginning of permanent progress. 

As a result of a Sunday-school started in New 
York City, 1814, by Mrs. Graham and her daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Divie Bethune, and of the suggestion 
of Mr. Eleazar Lord, who had observed the work- 
ing of the Sunday-school system in Philadelphia, 
" The Female Union Society, for the Promotion 
of Sabbath Schools/' ^ was formed in New York 
by the benevolent ladies of several denominations. 
It convened by public invitation, January 24, 181 6. 
A constitution was adopted, and schools for the 
instruction of females were immediately opened. 
In 1825, the Society had thirty-eight schools, five 
hundred and twenty-five teachers, and three thou- 
sand and fifty-two scholars, under its care. In 
February, 181 6, the gentlemen of New York held 
a public meeting in emulation of the ladies, and 
on the twenty-sixth of the same month the " New 
York Sunday-School Union " was instituted, and 
schools for boys were immediately put in opera- 
tion. During the first year more than sixteen 
hundred scholars entered their schools. In 1825 
they had fifty-eight schools, six hundred and six- 
teen conductors, and forty-four hundred and 
thirty scholars. 

About the same time, in 181 6, was organized 
the " Boston Society for the Moral and Religious 
Instruction of the Poor," under whose auspices 

'History of Sunday- Schools and of Religious Educa- 
tion, Pray, p. 212. 



30 Sunday-School Movements 

the cause of Sunday-schools was prosecuted with 
much vigor. The first school of this Society, 
started in 1817, was the Mason Street Sunday- 
school, which has always maintained a high repu- 
tation. 

Meantime, Watt, Fulton and Stephenson were 
at work, the " era of good feeling " in the United 
States was dawning, and the pendulum of Sun- 
day-school movements was destined to swing far 
beyond the line of local organizations. The pre- 
paratory step was the formation ® on May 26, 
18 17, of the " Philadelphia Sunday and Adult 
School Union " with this leading design, to " cul- 
tivate unity and charity among those of different 
names, to ascertain the extent of gratuitous in- 
struction in Sunday and adult schools, to promote 
their establishment in the city and in the villages 
in the country, to give more effect to Christian 
exertion in general, and to encourage and 
strengthen each other in the cause of the Re- 
deemer." The Association embraced the members 
of the several Sunday and adult school societies 
of Philadelphia and other parts of the State of 
Pennsylvania. In 1821 it employed a missionary 
who organized upward of sixty schools, in six dif- 
ferent States. Later it employed two missionaries. 
It issued also a large number of Scripture tickets 
and such matter. 

• Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, p. 708. 



American Sunday-School Union 31 

Origin and Object of the American Sunday- 
School Union. Rapidly the tendency towards 
broad cooperation increased till, in 1820, the first 
public plea for a " general Sunday-School Union 
in the United States '' was made by the New 
York Sunday-School Union, and printed in its 
Annual Report. The idea of a national society 
seon engaged the thoughts of Sunday-school 
workers in the various parts of the country. A 
plan for such a society was outlined and distrib- 
uted for consideration. Delegates from various 
societies met in Philadelphia, December 11, 1823, 
and discussed and approved the plan, but referred 
action to the next annual meeting of the Philadel- 
phia Sunday and Adult School Union. This 
second meeting ® " was largely attended by prom- 
inent ministers and laymen of several different 
denominations, and from fifteen to twenty States 
(there were only twenty- four States then) and, 
after able addresses by several representatives, 
the name and constitution of the * American Sun- 
day-School Union ' were unanimously approved, 
May 25, 1824." The New York and Boston 
Unions became auxiliary to the American Union 
as the national and parent Society. This organ- 
ization has been and still is the most enterprising 
and widely beneficent of all the long list of such 
associations in America. Its objects, as stated in 

* History of the American Sunday-School Union, by 
E. W. Rice, Sunday- School Missionary, June, 1899, p. 5. 



32 Sunday-School Movements 

the constitution, quoted on the cover of the an- 
nual reports, and kept constantly in view, are " To 
concentrate the efforts of Sabbath-school societies 
in different portions of our country ... to 
disseminate useful information; circulate moral 
and religious publications in every part of the 
land, and endeavor to plant a Sunday-school 
wherever there is a population/' 

Management. The affairs and funds of the So- 
ciety are under the direction of a Board, consist- 
ing of a President, Vice-President, Corresponding 
Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer and 
about thirty ^^ Managers. To avoid sectarian- 
ism, this Board is restricted to laymen and in- 
cludes members of the principal evangelical de- 
nominations of the country. As business 
increased it was found advisable to appoint special 
committees for the important branches of work, 
and at present there is a committee of twelve on 
Publication, one of eight on Missions, one of five 
on Finance, and an Executive Committee of three. 
Most of the members of these committees are from 
the Board. The general membership of the So- 
ciety consists of annual subscribers of three dol- 
lars or more, and life members who have sub- 
scribed thirty dollars at one time. 

Publications. From the outset, two distinct 
fields of labor opened before the Union, and were 
simultaneously entered upon, — the preparation of 

"Annual Reports (recent). 



American Sunday-School Union 23 

suitable books and the establishment of schools. 
At the beginning of the century religious litera- 
ture for the young was generally unknown. 
President Humphrey, of Amherst College, and 
Dr. T. H. Gallaudet, who were likely to be best 
informed on this subject, declared that they did 
not know of a score of reading-books of any 
kind suitable for the young, ^^ even when they 
counted in the short list such sketches as " Glass 
Slipper," "Goody Two-Shoes," "Bluebeard," 
and "Who Killed Cock Robin?", with "Pil- 
grim's Progress," " Robinson Crusoe," " Watt's 
Songs," and " Martyrdom of John Rogers." 
Sunday-school children were employed commit- 
ting to memory hymns and passages of Scripture, 
and there was no attempt at explaining the Bible 
or helping them to understand it. The Philadel- 
phia Sunday and Adult School Union published 
twenty-one bound reading-books, which, at the 
time of its absorption in the American Sunday- 
School Union, were transferred to the new organ- 
ization, together with the funds which amounted 
to about $5,000. 

In the American Sunday-School Union, the 
finances of the publication department are kept 
entirely distinct from those of the missionary de- 
partment. The expenses here are defrayed from 
the proceeds of the books sold, but as the de- 
partment is for charitable, and not money-making 

" Bird's-eye- View, by E. W. Rice, Sundav-Schogl 
Missionary, Nov. 1895, p. 7, 



34 Sunday-School Movements 

purposes, the price of books is as near as possible 
to the cost of publication, and often, thanks to 
donations, merely nominal. Where it seems ad- 
visable, books are even given gratuitously. 

The " Committee of Publications," at first con- 
sisting of only five members, now of twelve, is 
chosen from different evangelical denominations, 
and no publication is permitted that has not their 
unanimous approval. The work of this commit- 
tee has been most varied. For the use of some 
schools, elementary books were needed, such as 
primers, spelling-books, testaments and hymn 
books, which were furnished at the very low price 
of from two to eight cents ^^ each. Since the 
foundation of the American Bible Society, how- 
ever, the publication of Bibles and testaments has 
been relinquished, to avoid a complication of in- 
terests ; and for the same reason, upon the organ- 
ization of the American Tract Society, and at its 
request, the Union ceased the publication of re- 
ligious tracts, of which it had previously issued a 
large number. 

As early as 1826 the Society started a system of 
selected uniform lessons. The first step was the 
selection of a definite portion of Scripture for 
the whole school. Next, came a systematic series 
of selections from the Gospel history, in chrono- 
logical order, comprising forty-seven lessons of 
from ten to twenty verses each, printed upon 

" Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, pp. 710 and 717. 



American Sunday-School Union 35 

cards. Then a series of question books was de- 
vised by Rev. Albert Judson, at this time agent 
of the New York Sunday-School Union. After 
this the number of question books for children 
published by the Society rapidly increased, nu- 
merous aids for teachers and scholars were added, 
and other societies soon began to use the same 
plan. At the head of the list of Sunday-school 
aids published by the Society to-day,^^ is the well- 
known Sunday-School World, a monthly, which 
expands and illustrates the International Lessons, 
discusses manifold phases of Sunday-school work, 
suggests new and improved methods, and notes 
the literature of interest to those who would know 
what is being done by others. 

The Sunday-School World leads not only as a 
lesson help, but as a periodical of the Society. 
From the first year of the Union, when the Teach- 
ers' Magazine was started as a monthly, the Com- 
mittee has not ceased sending forth an interesting 
variety of periodicals, adapted to the demands of 
the times. Copies of many of these papers can 
still be seen at the Society's headquarters in Phila- 
delphia, and an impressive idea of the advance- 
ment of the age can be gained by contrasting any 
of the numerous current publications with one of 
seventy years ago,^* in one of the best of which 
we find the articles, " Native Indians," " Happy 
Death of a Sunday-School Scholar," " Sunday- 



" Annual Report, 1898, p. 12. 
"The Child's Magazine, July, 1828. 



36 Sunday-School Movements 

School Anecdote/* " The Robber's Daughter/* and 
a " Scripture Question for July, * How can you 
prove that God's providential care extends to all 
his creatures? ' " 

Another excellent work has been accomplished 
by this Department, namely the introduction of 
the library feature into Sunday-schools. At 
first, as has been said, the number of books was 
extremely limited, not above thirty or forty from 
all sources, and many of these were reprints of 
English books. The demand which soon arose 
was one which manufacturers did not care to sup- 
ply, for the books had to be cheap and unsectarian. 
Such books the Society undertook to furnish. It 
circulated its price catalogues all over the land, 
and by 1827 had opened sixty-seven depositories 
at various points. At the annual meeting in 1837, 
the Board were instructed to prepare and furnish 
at the lowest price, a small select library for com- 
mon schools. A selection of one hundred and 
twenty-one volumes was accordingly made from 
the books of the Society, and no labor or expense 
spared to introduce them to the notice of parties 
interested. The selection, however, was generally 
objected to as too strictly religious, and was 
adopted in comparatively few instances, though 
regarded with favor by those who understood the 
design of the Society in preparing it. Since then 
more successful libraries have been furnished, 
among others, the present " Half-Price Home 
Library" issued monthly at $1.15 per year; and 



American Sunday-School Union 37 

the total number of volumes published by the So- 
ciety has risen to the thousands. 

More and more attention has been given to the 
style as well as to the subjects of the books. The 
illustrations are not mere pictures to amuse chil- 
dren, but have often been prepared at great ex- 
pense, and are chiefly ^^ such cuts or engravings 
as give a notion of visible existences, such as the 
geography and natural history of the Bible. Much 
attention, too, has recently been given to biog- 
raphy, both biblical, as the lives of Moses, David, 
Daniel, Elijah, John the Baptist and Paul, and 
secular, as the lives of Washington, and sketches 
of Melancthon, Knox, Wishart, and Lady Jane 
Grey. 

Finally, for some years this Committee has 
caused ^® the free distribution of literature to hos- 
pitals, asylums, penitentiaries, and houses of de- 
tention in the United States, with gratifying re- 
sults. The chaplains and others in charge of these 
institutions have sent repeated thanks and reports 
of the helpful influences of this literature in re- 
forming the vicious and unfortunate classes. The 
total value of publications distributed by the So- 
ciety in its various lines of work has amounted 
to over $9,000,000.^' 

"Design, Character and Uses of the Books of the 
American Sunday-School Union (reprint), p. 8. 

"Annual Report, 1898, p. 11. 

*^ Sunday- School Missionary, 1899; History of the 
American Sunday-School Union, by E. W. Rice, p. 32. 



38 Sunday-School Movements 

Establishment of schools. The other, and even 
greater field of labor upon which this Union en- 
tered was that of establishing schools. The kind 
of Sunday-school contemplated was for religious 
instruction exclusively, and was to receive all 
classes of children and care for them alike. Even 
the First-Day or Sunday-School Society of Phila- 
delphia had in view the moral rather than the re- 
ligious instruction of children, so that for the 
new schools there was no precedent. 

During the first year of the Society, therefore, 
agents, or " missionaries," as they were called, 
both clerical and lay, were sent out to explore dis- 
tricts that were especially needy, and there open 
new schools or prepare the way for them as might 
be practicable, to visit and encourage schools al- 
ready existing, to organize auxiliary societies, 
and to solicit funds to defray their expenses. The 
compensation paid to such missionaries did not 
exceed, on an average, one dollar a day for the 
time actually expended. The total expenses of the 
missionary- serv'ice for the first two or three years 
were defrayed ^^ by the voluntary contributions 
made at the monthly concerts of prayer for Sun- 
day-schools, and by the admission fees of mem- 
bers and auxiliaries. 

In the second year the missionary work was 
placed in charge of a special committee, and a gen- 
eral agent was employed to visit the different sec- 

" Sunday-Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, p. 710. 



American Sunday-School Union 39 

tions of the country for the purpose of awaken- 
ing a more general interest in the Society, and to 
obtain contributions m the larger cities. The pe- 
cuniary results of this plan were small, but the 
Society was encouraged by the increased favor 
with which its labors were received, and by the 
new openings for more extended work. The re- 
ceipts ^^ of the Union, which had been $4,000 the 
first year, were $9,000 the second, $19,000 the 
third, and $58,000 the fourth, at the end of which 
year the debts of the Union were $35,000, and the 
effective capital was but $25,000. Opportunities 
for the organization of new schools in the West, 
however, were so many and favorable, and calls 
so urgent and incessant, that the Board were in- 
cited to more extended labors. A meeting of del- 
egates representing the Sunday-schools of four- 
teen different States, and held at Philadelphia in 
May, 1828, encouraged the Society in its endeav- 
ors by promises of cooperation and an immediate 
subscription of nearly $5,000. 

The Mississippi Valley Enterprise. In 1829 the 
first permanent agency in the Western States was 
established at Cincinnati, and that section was 
thoroughly explored with a view to a more sys- 
tematic missionary labor. At the anniversary of 
the Society in May, 1830, it was resolved, so far 
as practicable, to organize a Sunday-school, within 

" Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday- School 
Union, p. 713, 



40 Sunday-School Movements 

two years, in every destitute place in the Valley 
of the Mississippi. This plan was received with 
great favor, and entered upon with zeal. Nearly 
$25,000 was subscribed and collected in Philadel- 
phia and New York within a few days, and ar- 
dent and enterprising missionaries were sent into 
the field. 

As this is one of the most important events in 
the history of Mission Sunday-schools in America, 
it is worthy of a somewhat detailed account. It 
created a wave of popular enthusiasm which 
swept over the whole country, and was felt even 
in Great Britain.^^ Prominent ministers of all 
denominations, able statesmen, and noted mer- 
chants entered into the cause. Within two years, 
the contributions to the " Valley Fund " exceeded 
$60,000, perhaps not a large sum to-day, but 
princely gifts for 1830. Although the entire 
population of the Mississippi Valley was at that 
time hardly 3,000,000, it was rapidly increasing, 
and the persons who passed the resolution did not 
realize the magnitude of such an undertaking, nor 
how many years it would require to accomplish 
the desired result. 

The first missionary chosen was B. J. Seward, 
who enlisted two others. Among the hundreds 
of Sunday-schools formed by these earnest work- 
ers was one at Winchester, Illinois, where a little 
child, Mary Paxson by name, led her father and 
was the means of his conversion. This Mr. Pax- 

••A Fruitful Life, pp. 29-32 (note). 



American Sunday-School Union 41 

son soon became the greatest of the Mississippi 
Valley missionaries, and his life ^^ shows the hard- 
ships as well as the successes of that occupation. 
As the salary offered by the Society was one 
dollar for every day of work, and Mr. Paxson 
had little else to depend upon, he moved his family 
from their pleasant home to a rude log cabin in 
a wilderness of Pike county, Illinois. From there 
he started out upon his journeys, and with horse 
and buggy traversed the places destitute of re- 
ligious instruction. It was his business to visit 
all the people in a neighborhood where there was 
no Sunday-school ; to invite them to hold a meet- 
ing for the purpose of organization; to address 
them at this meeting ; to instruct them in the best 
methods of conducting a school, and to provide 
them with necessary books and papers. While 
away on these trips Mr. Paxson could not hear 
from his home, as it was before railroads covered 
the West, and it was impossible for him to foretell 
his route. During his short home stays, reports 
had to be made out, letters written, and books or- 
dered for needy schools. It is but just to the 
Union to say that in 1854 Mr. Paxson's salary 
was raised and he moved his family to where they 
could have some educational advantages. Two 
years later he was called to the East to speak in 
behalf of the work of the Union before the cul- 
tured audiences of the great cities. Year after 
year he was asked to return to the East in the 

" A Fruitful Life, by B. Paxson Drury. 



42 Sunday-School Movements 

winter, when he spoke every night in the week 
except Saturday, and from three to five times on 
Sunday. Later he gave much of his time to con- 
vention work, but his incessant toil told on his 
strength, and in 1868 the Society gave him the 
easier position of taking charge of a Book De- 
pository in St. Louis. By the end of his life, this 
extraordinary man, Stephen Paxson, had traveled 
from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, 
from the Lakes to the Gulf; had organized 1,314 
Sunday-schools, with 83,405 scholars and teach- 
ers, where no Sunday-schools had before existed, 
besides encouraging and aiding 1,747 other Sun- 
day-schools ; and had organized a large number 
of conventions. 

Methods of Eeporting. After such a story it 
will be asked : Is there any way of testing such 
reports and statistics? Each missionary is re- 
quired not only to state the number of schools he 
has organized and aided every month, but also to 
give the location of each school, the day on which 
it was organized or aided, and the name and post- 
office address of each superintendent. These re- 
ports are carefully preserved in the office of the 
Secretary of Missions, at Philadelphia, and are 
open to the inspection of any contributor or friend 
of the Society. This system has been found by 
personal ^^ investigation to secure accurate and 
trustworthy statements. 

" A Brief View of the Missionary Work of the Amer- 
ican Sunday-School Union (revised), p. 8. 



American Sunday-School Union 43 

Other Missionary Work. It is not intended in 
the above account to give the impression that 
Stephen Paxson far outshone all other missiona- 
ries of the Society, or that the Mississippi Valley 
scheme was the only enterprise of the kind under- 
taken. Other workers are not mentioned for the 
very fact that they are so numerous, and the other 
undertakings of the Union will need less descrip- 
tion because one has been given in some detail. 
The Society's field of labor, though it might seem 
under the constitution not to be limited, has al- 
ways been confined to the territory of the United 
States, and though repeatedly solicited, it has al- 
ways refused to extend its missionary work be- 
yond those limits. In 1833, however, an earnest 
appeal was made by the Board for Foreign Mis- 
sions for assistance in translating its works for the 
use of schools at foreign missionary stations, and 
an agency was created which raised over $3,000 
for the purpose. From this fund appropria- 
tions ^^ were made to the missions in India, China, 
Greece, Persia, Turkey and the Sandwich Islands ; 
donations of books were also made to Ceylon 
and India missions, and for distribution in South 
America, Russia and Prussia, and a depository 
for the sale of its books was established at Cal- 
cutta. Various translations have been made of 
the Society's publications into French, German, 
Greek, Swedish, Portuguese, Bengalee, and some 
other Indian languages. 

" Sunday- Schools and the American Sunday-School 
Union, p. 714. 



44 Sunday-School Movements 

At the same time special attention was directed 
to the Southern States, and after a preliminary 
survey of the territory by the Rev. Robert Baird, 
D. D., the effort was made to supply the obviously 
existing want of Sunday-schools by missionary 
labor, as in the Mississippi Valley. But the at- 
tempt was met with suspicion and jealousy. 
Moreover, although $30,000 was contributed for 
the object, the appropriations to this field exceeded 
the donations by nearly $3,000. Since then the 
Society has thought it unwise to depend upon the 
temporary excitement of special enterprises, and 
has in the main ceased to work for such appro- 
priations. 

The missionary work, however, has steadily in- 
creased and to-day covers almost the entire terri- 
tory of the United States. The field is divided 
into eight or nine districts, the larger ones having 
each a special superintendent. The Southern Dis- 
trict contains a population of over sixteen million, 
nearly all living in small towns and rural tracts. 
It includes the destitute " poor whites " of the 
piney wood region, and illiterate colored people of 
the poorest kind ; for which latter three colored 
missionaries are employed. The Central District 
confines its work chiefly to Michigan and Ohio. 
The Northwestern District is one of the largest 
and most active, giving especial attention to the 
frequent revisiting of schools. Here also, con- 
trary to the usual aim of the Society, some ener- 
getic city work has been accomplished, as at Coun- 



American Sunday-School Union 45 

oil Bluffs, Iowa, where thousands of persons have 
been fed and clothed, hundreds given employ- 
ment, and many rescued from evil lives. In this 
quarter the " student work " has been most suc- 
cessful. 

The department of " student work " had been 
in operation from about 1850 to i860, but was dis- 
continued for want of funds, and was not re- 
newed until 1897. It gives an opportunity for 
Christian work to college or theological students 
during their vacation. Reports were received 
from only thirty-five of the eighty-four students 
commissioned bv the Union the first summer. 
These reported ^* fifty-five Sunday-schools organ- 
ized, one hundred and eighty-nine teachers, and 
sixteen hundred and twenty-five scholars; six 
schools reorganized; three hundred and sixty- 
seven schools visited for the first time; twelve 
thousand three hundred and seventy-one visits 
made to families, of whom four hundred and 
eighty-six were without Bibles ; thirty-seven hun- 
dred and sixty-six books distributed. These mis- 
sionary students are advised to explain the work 
of the Union at the Gospel Meetings which they 
hold, and to take up an offering for it. The 
money so obtained must be reported to the So- 
ciety, but the student is authorized *** to retain as 
his own, in compensation for his services, a sum 

"•Annual Report of 1898, p. 36. 

"Instructions for Student Missionaries of the Amer- 
ican Sunday- School Union, p. 6. 



46 Sunday-School Movements 

not to exceed $30, for each month spent in the 
work. 

The Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain, and South- 
western Districts have fewer workers than the 
Northwestern; although their fields seem needy, 
and more schools are annually organized in the 
Southwestern District than in any other. The 
superintendent of this district believes that more 
people are reached by planting many schools than 
by " coddling " a few, and in fact one of the 
Southwestern schools ^^ which the missionary 
founder was never able to revisit, flourished until 
through its influence five other schools in adjoin- 
ing neighborhoods were established, which were 
not reported as the result of the missionary work 
of the Society. 

In the East the work is entirely different. 
Pennsylvania still has two missionaries. New 
York and New Jersey have a secretary, the mis- 
sionary work being now under the care of their 
state associations. The duty of this secretary 
seems to be chiefly to collect money for the sup- 
port of missionaries in the growing West and the 
needy South. 

New England also has a secretary, at Boston. 
Of late years, however, the movement of popula- 
tion from the country into the cities, which has 
greatly depleted the rural districts, has made it 
impossible to sustain the old-time services of re- 
ligion, and has left multitudes stranded without 

'® Sunday- School Missionary, Nov., 1895, p. 10, 



American Sunday-School Union 47 

gospel privileges. To meet this need, five mis- 
sionaries, including the wife of the Vermont mis- 
sionary, are at work in Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont and Massachusetts, respectively. Be- 
sides collecting funds for the South and West, the"" 
New England secretary has been successful in en- 
couraging ladies to send missionary boxes to the 
workers at distant posts. But the most striking 
feature of this district has been the employment 
by the Society of a native Chinese missionary. 
This missionary labors among those of his own 
nationality in Boston and other parts of New Eng- 
land. 

Character of the Schools. As a rule the Union 
does not work in the large cities. The Sunday- 
school missionary goes where sometimes he is the 
only pastor in the section, visiting the people in 
sickness, burying their dead, and counseling 
them in hours of perplexity. His chief purpose 
from the time he starts a school is to lead the 
people toward its ultimate support. They are 
free to have the school on the union plan, or to 
make it of any evangelical denomination the ma- 
jority may prefer. If the neighborhood is a 
growing one, the missionary desires and expects 
in time the formation of a church. In 1898, the 
organization of churches followed the establish- 
ment of Union Sunday-schools in eighty ^^ cases. 
Among the reasons for establishing the school 

" Report for 1898, p. 17. 



48 Sunday-School Movements 

before the church is the fact that in these rural 
communities there are seldom enough of one be- 
lief to form a church, and they will not unite ex- 
cept for the sake of the children. These schools 
become social and moral centres, and encourage 
intellectual life. Scores of young people gradu- 
ate from these little country Sunday-schools, to 
enter academies, seminaries and colleges. 

Conventions and Conferences. Apart from these 
two main lines of work, yet as an outgrowth of 
them, the American Sunday-School Union has 
been the cradle of the International work ; for not 
only is the International Lesson System the de- 
velopment of this Society's " Uniform lessons," 
but even the great International Conventions had 
their origin in the work of this Union. 

At a meeting^® of the friends of Sunday- 
schools, held May 23, 1832, in Philadelphia, on 
the occasion of the anniversary of the American 
Sunday-School Union, and also of the meeting of 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 
it was found that the workers present represented 
fifteen States. After some discussion it was re- 
solved to hold a national convention of persons 
actually engaged in Sunday-school work, in New 
York, on the first Wednesday of the following 
October. The object was to deliberate upon plans 
for promoting the usefulness of the system of re- 

*• Report of the Eighth International Sunday-School 
Convention, 1896, p. 9. 



American Sunday-School Union 49 

ligious instruction, and to adopt, if possible, some 
means of rendering it more efficient. A commit- 
tee was appointed to prepare a series of interroga- 
tories for circulation over the land. They pre- 
pared seventy-eight questions on the following 
thirteen subjects: Schools (including infant 
schools), Organization, Discipline, Visiting, 
Modes of Instruction, Union Question-Books, 
Other Question-Books, Libraries, Other Means of 
Success, Superintendents, Bible-Classes, Adult 
Classes, Miscellaneous. Twenty-five hundred of 
these papers were distributed to superintendents 
and others in different parts of the country. 
About three hundred were answered; some re- 
plies were very copious, and the whole collection, 
a quarto volume ^® of 2,400 pages, was submitted 
to the convention, and is still to be seen at the 
Union's quarters in Philadelphia. The conven- 
tion assembled October 3, 1832, and was the first 
of the " National Conventions " from which the 
" International Conventions " have grown. 

Besides these great gatherings, local confer- 
ences are held, at which the experience and obser- 
vations of the missionaries are compared with 
those of the managers. For example, the North- 
western District holds an annual conference at 
the Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago. In 1855 
a particularly interesting and profitable convention 
of secretaries, agents and missionaries was held 

"Bound Volume of the ** Sunday- School Teachers* 
Convention," 1833. 



50 Sunday-School Movements 

at Cincinnati. We have aheady seen that Stephen 
Paxson worked in conventions; but Sunday- 
school conventions have been the special work of 
another organization. 

Incorporation and Finances. With all this in- 
creasing work how have the finances of the Union 
prospered? The cost of the publications which 
were given away, and the expense of sending out 
missionaries, had to be met by benevolent contri- 
butions, or, when the gifts were too small, the 
difference went to swell " borrowed money," soon 
making a burdensome debt. At an early date suit- 
able premises for the use of the Society were se- 
cured, at a total cost of over $40,000, of which 
one-third was contributed by the citizens of Phila- 
delphia, and the remainder secured by a mortgage. 

Soon after the Mississippi Valley effort the 
debt ^^ was $47,000. This was alarming for those 
times; a reduction in benevolent work and sharp 
cutting down of business followed, and the debt 
shrank one-half. But the financial crisis of 1837 
crippled givers, business, and benevolences alike, 
and soon the " borrowed " funds rose to $90,000. 
The burden of reducing this debt again fell largely 
upon the business department. 

In 1845 the first legacy was received by the 
Society. This year, too, a charter was granted to 
the Union. More than fifteen years earlier the 
Society had become so extended that the Board 

""The Sunday- School Missionary, Nov., 1895, p. 8. 



American Sunday-School Union 51 

of Managers sought an act of incorporation em- 
powering them to hold a limited amount of prop- 
erty necessary for the carrying on of the business. 
But the application for a charter met with such 
suspicion and gave rise to such a degree and kind 
of hostility from the members of the Legislature 
as was wholly unexpected. The charter was de- 
nied and the application was not renewed till 1845. 

While the Society was still struggling with its 
debt a fresh gigantic effort was proposed, to found 
schools in the still destitute communities of the 
United States and the Canadas. The missionary 
treasury was overdrawn $76,000, by this fresh 
enterprise, and that sum had been added to the 
former " borrowed " money, when the financial 
crisis of 1857 crushed the country. The Union 
had hardly recovered from this when the Civil 
War cut off a large army of its friends. Millions 
of its publications were soon wanted and freely 
given to the armies in camp and hospital, special 
funds coming for the purpose. Then followed 
peace and the resumption of work in the great 
South, calling for increased gifts. The debts ac- 
cordingly grew, until the managers faced accumu- 
lated over-expenditures amounting to from 
$200,000 to $250,000. 

After several who favored the overdrafts had 
shrunk from any attempt to remove the debt, a 
plan was matured to clear it off without inter- 
fering with current benevolent work. Mr. Alex- 
ander Brown of Philadelphia gave $40,000, and 



52 Sunday-School Movements 

in a few years not only was the entire amount 
paid, but from added bequests and gifts, especially 
by the $100,000 from the John C. Green estate, 
$50,000 from the John Crerar estate and $78,000 
from the Mary Stuart bequests, the Society had 
income-bearing funds invested amounting to about 
$350,000. 

To-day, even after the past few years of de- 
pression beginning with 1893, the Union is clear 
from debt. It has organized an average of more 
than three Sunday-schools a day ^^ for over sixty- 
five years ; and yet, if there was a call for the 
American Sunday-School Union in 1824, the call 
is far more urgent in 1901, for there are more 
than three times as many children unreached by 
Sunday-schools in the United States, as there 
were children in the nation in 1824. 

" A Brief View of the Missionary Work of the Amer- 
ican Sunday- School Union (revised edition), p. 8. 



CHAPTER III 

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION SYSTEM 

Early Conventions. Early in this century, 
especially during the years between 1820 and 1830, 
local Sunday-school conventions were held^ in 
many of the Eastern and Middle States. For in- 
stance Hartford county, Connecticut, had a 
County Sunday-School Union ^ which held Sun- 
day-school conventions ; and the annual reports of 
the American Sunday-School Union from 1825 
to 1830 show that there were about four hundred 
such local organizations in active operation at that 
time. It was the interest and profit derived from 
this local form of conference which led to the 
National Sunday-School Conventions of 1832 and 

1833. 

First National Convention. As stated in the 
chapter on the American Sunday-School Union, at 
a meeting of the friends of Sunday-schools held 
May 23, 1832, in Philadelphia, on the occasion of 
the anniversary of that Union, and also of the 
meeting of the General Assembly of the Presby- 

* Sunday-Schools, article in Schaff-Herzog Encyclo- 
paedia of Religious Knowledge, 1891, by E. W. Rice, p. 
2265. 

'A Fruitful Life, B. Paxson Drury, p. 42. 

53 



54 Sunday-School Movements 

terian Church, it was found that the workers 
present represented fifteen States. After some 
discussion it was decided to call a national con- 
vention, to meet in New York in the fall of that 
year. Accordingly, a gathering which was the 
first of the great National Sunday-School Con- 
ventions assembled October 3, 1832, in what was 
called the Chatham Street Chapel. The Hon. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, was 
chosen president, and about two hundred and 
twenty delegates were enrolled, representing 
fifteen states, more than one-half of the then 
Union. The body was an imposing and influential 
one, including many religious leaders, both clerical 
and lay. Its chief work seems to have been to re- 
ceive the answers to questions previously dis- 
tributed, to appoint committees to consider the 
more important topics, and to prepare an outline 
of such topics under the following heads: Infant 
Sunday-School Organization ; Discipline of Sun- 
day-schools, including Plans for Visiting and Sus- 
taining Sunday-schools ; Plan of Instruction ; 
Sunday-school Libraries; Qualifying Scholars to 
become Teachers ; Duties of Superintendent and 
Teachers ; Organization of County and other 
Unions; Propriety of having more than one ses- 
sion a day. This convention did not disband but 
adjourned to meet in Philadelphia the following 
spring. ^ 

'Historical Sketch, Report of 9th (and also 8th) In- 
ternational Sunday- School Convention. 



The National Convention System 55 

Second National Convention. The Second Na- 
tional Convention, ^ in reaUty the adjourned meet- 
ing of the first convention, met May 2.2, 1833, in 
the Cherry Street lecture-room, Philadelphia. The 
Hon. Willard Hall was chosen president. Only 
nine states were represented at this convention, 
the reassembling of the convention being imprac- 
ticable so soon after the other sessions. It is 
worthy of note, however, that this body adopted 
the recommendation of the American Sunday- 
School Union, " that a systematic and simultane- 
ous canvass of the entire country be made, to ob- 
tain scholars and enlist parents in the work, on 
the 4th of July following. " The various com- 
mittees made their reports, and after a few sessions 
of considerable interest, the convention adjourned. 
In the list of National Conventions this and the 
preceding are frequently counted as one. 

It appears to have been more than twenty 
years ^ after this before either a state or a national 
Sunday-school convention was again held in this 
country, unless some state gatherings immedi- 
ately followed the Second National Convention. 

Growth and Character of the System. In 1855, 
a state Sunday-school convention was held in 
Massachusetts ; but that was more for social 
stimulus than for organized work. It was during 
the early autumn of 1856 that the Sunday-school 

*Tlie Sun day- School Times, May 30 1896, p. 339, 
art. by H, C. Trumbull. 



56 Sunday-School Movements 

teachers of Massachusetts, one thousand strong, 
paid a visit to the Crystal Palace and the Sunday- 
school teachers of New York. ^ They were re- 
ceived with great cordiality, and mingled de- 
lightedly with the Sunday-school teachers of New 
York and Brooklyn during two or three days, 
closing with a grand Farewell Meeting in Ply- 
mouth Church, Brooklyn. This proved so in- 
teresting and profitable that Massachusetts called 
a three-days State Sunday-school Convention in 
the city of Boston, later in the fall of the same 
year ; and New York held its first State Sunday- 
school Convention, for three days, in the city 
of Albany, in January, 1857. Both conventions 
were highly profitable, and those states have 
held such meetings annually ever since. Con- 
necticut also held a State Convention in 1857. 
It was at this time that the plan of county 
secretaries for organized and systematic effort 
was inaugurated in those states. After this 
other states, East and West, followed with similar 
organizations, and there has since been no break 
in the course of organized work. 

Meanwhile the West had been stimulated by an- 
other force. Stephen Paxson, of Missouri, the 
great early missionary of the American Sunday- 
School Union, was enthusiastic over the conven- 
tion idea. He had succeeded in planting fifteen 
Sunday-schools in Scott county, Illinois. The 

•The Sabbath- School Index, by R. S. Pardee, 18683, 
p. 24. 



The National Convention System 57 

need of cooperation, sympathy, and union soon 
began to be felt in this region, and he determined 
to call the schools together. They met in a two- 
days convention in the old Presbyterian Church 
in Winchester. This is often considered the first 
county convention ever organized in the United 
States. It was in 1846. He then predicted that 
the time would come when there would be a county 
convention in every county in the state of Illinois. 
He himself organized forty in that state. From 
this beginning, it is said,^ the system of district, 
county and state conventions has sprung. 

Gradually the convention system has become 
more and more perfect, until to-day in most of 
the states the chain is complete. The international 
conventions take place every three years, com- 
posed of delegates from each state, territory and 
province. Once a year there is a state or provin- 
cial convention, composed of delegates from each 
county in the state or province. Next comes the 
county convention, composed of delegates from 
each township or district in the county; and last, 
the township convention, that embraces every 
Sunday-school officer and teacher within its 
boundary. The international organization is the 
watch-tower from which the whole field is over- 
looked. "^ The great cities containing from 250,000 
to 1,000,000 people, and the single state of Nevada 

'A Fruitful Life, pp. 43, 164. 

' Eighth International Sunday-School Convention Re- 
port, p. 44. 



58 Sunday-School Movements 

present almost the only ® soil too hard or too arid 
for the seed of the International Sunday-School 
system. 

Third National Convention. The Third Na- 
tional Convention was held in Philadelphia, Feb- 
ruary 22 to 24, 1859. Ex-Gov. James J. Pollock, 
of Pennsylvania, was chosen president. Seventeen 
states and the District of Columbia were repre- 
sented, with one representative from Great Britain. 
The meetings were held in Jayne's Hall, and the 
interest in the exercises increased from session to 
session until that spacious audience room could 
not contain the people. A committee was ap- 
pointed to make arrangements for a " similar 
assemblage of the representatives of the evangeli- 
cal Sabbath-schools of America. " After this 
convention the Civil War interrupted the series of 
such gatherings contemplated by its managers. 

The Movement in Illinois. Meanwhile a fire 
was being kindled in Illinois. The first Illinois 
State Sunday-School Convention was held in 1859. 
It was not a large gathering, hardly a score of 
persons being present. Mr. E. C. Wilder, then 
of Chicago, and the Rev. S. G. Lathrop were 
leaders in the movement. The three following 
annual conventions were also poorly attended. 
But in 1864, at Springfield, the evening before 
the opening service, Mr. Moody said, " This 

' Ninth International Sunday- School Convention Re- 
port, pp. 97, 227. 



The National Convention System 59 

thing so far has been a dead failure ; we must do 
something to give it power." Beginning with 
a prayer-meeting, where perhaps half a dozen 
were present, within a day or two the whole city 
was moved. When the delegates went back to 
their homes they carried the spirit of the meeting 
over all the state. From that time Moody, 
Jacobs, Eggleston, Wilder, Reynolds, Alexander 
Tyng, J. V. Farwell, Major Whittle, P. P. Bliss 
and others were aflame with the one purpose to 
cover the state with suitably organized Sunday- 
schools. ® 

Fourth National Convention. In June, 1868, 
during the session of the International Convention 
of Young Men's Christian Associations, at De- 
troit, an informal meeting of Sunday-school 
workers was held and a plan was formed to call 
an international Sunday-school convention. A 
committee, with Rev. Edward Eggleston as chair- 
man, was appointed to further the project. This 
committee, having learned that the national com- 
mittee of the Philadelphia convention was still in 
existence, united with them and other prominent 
Sunday-school workers in issuing the call for the 
Fourth National Convention. 

This convention was held in Newark, New Jer- 
sey, April 28 to 30, 1869. Its main sessions took 
place in the First Baptist Church, which, though 
large, could not accommodate the crowds desiring 

" The Lesson System, by Simeon Gilbert, 1879, pp. 24, 
25. 



6o Sunday-School Movements 

to attend, so that other meetings were organized in 
other rooms. The convention was called to order 
by Mr. Eggleston. Mr. George H. Stuart, of 
Pennsylvania, was made president. H. Clay 
Trumbull, J. H. Vincent and B. F. Jacobs were 
secretaries. Twenty-eight states and one territory 
of the Union were represen.ted in the membership 
of the convention, besides the Dominion of Canada, 
England, Ireland, Scotland, Eg>'pt and South 
Africa. The whole number of delegates was five 
hundred and twenty-six. The entire attendance 
at the convention was estimated at between 2,500 
and 3,000 persons. It was said by the reporter of 
the proceedings that, " The spirit and power of the 
exercises can only be faintly shadowed. . . . 
Never before had so many Sunday-school leaders 
of the land been brought face to face. Taken as 
a whole it was the most memorable Sunday-school 
gathering ever assembled in the United States, if 
not in the world. " 

Fifth National Convention.* The Fifth Nation- 
al Convention was held in Indianapolis, April 16 
to 19, 1872 ; P. G. Gillett, LL. D., of Illinois, be- 
ing president. Although smaller than that of 1869, 
this convention has acquired a historical interest 
on account of its inauguration of the Uniform or 
International Lesson System. According to the 
editor of the Sunday-School Times, as quoted by 
the Reports, " After the earnest speech of Mr. B. 
F. Jacobs, who had been appointed to lead the 

* See chap. IV, p. 8. 



The National Convention System 6i 

discussion, and during the brief speeches for and 
against which followed, the scene was indiscrib- 
able. A quiver of eager desire seemed to thrill the 
whole body. . . . There was scarcely a corpo- 
raFs guard of opponents to the measure. Al- 
though in the morning when the question was 
broached, repeated cries of * question ' were made, 
the council of caution prevailed, and the measure 
was not rushed through in hot haste, but left for 
the afternoon session. The ardor of its advocates 
had not at all cooled by the delay, the final vote 
being almost unanimous, and its announcement 
being greeted by the convention rising to their 
feet and singing the long meter doxology." 

First International Convention. Since 1872, 
when the uniform lesson system was agreed upon, 
the conventions have met every three years, and 
have been called International. A new lesson com- 
mittee has been chosen at the alternate meetings, 
that is one in every six years. The First Inter- 
national Convention was held in Baltimore, May 
II to 13, 1875, the Rev. George A. Peltz, of New 
Jersey, being president. A cablegram of greeting 
was received from the Church of England Sun- 
day-school teachers assembled in Exeter Hall, 
London, to which the convention responded. 
Twenty Canadian representatives were present. 
Besides this great convention, twenty-one State 
Sunday-school conventions ^" were held that year. 

"Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, M'Clintock & 
Strong, 1881, v©l. X, p. 23. 



62 Sunday-School Movements 

Second, Third and Fourth International Con- 
ventions. The next International Convention was 
held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 17 to 19, 1878, and 
was the first one held in the South. Gov. Alfred 
H. Colquitt, of Georgia, was chosen president. 
The convention was characterized by great en- 
thusiasm at all its sessions, and was the beginning 
of thorough organization in Sunday-school work 
in the Southern states. 

The Third International Convention was held 
in Toronto, Canada, June 22 to 24, 188 1, the Hon. 
S. H. Blake of that city being chosen president. 

The Fourth International Convention is of 
especial interest as including a Primary Teachers' 
Institute, and as receiving the formal announce- 
ment ^^ of the existence of the National Union of 
Primary Sunday-School Teachers, organized the 
month before. The convention was held in Louis- 
ville, June II to 13, 1884, with the Hon. Thomas 
W. Bickwell, of Massachusetts, as president. 

National Primary Union. Primary work has 
now become a clearly defined department of 
the International Convention system. " The 
idea that a teacher of little children in the 
Sabbath school needed any special training origi- 
nated in the minds of a few teachers in the city of 
Newark, New Jersey, who held their first meeting 
for this purpose on February 18, 1870." ^^ About 

" Primary Workers' Manual, Phil., 1897, p. 33. 

" International Primary Union, by Israel P. Black, in 



The National Convention System 6^ 

the first of February, 1871, a little company of 
infant class teachers in New York ^^ met " for 
consultation as to what means could be adopted to 
prepare the teachers to meet their little ones, and 
how best to advance the interests of a class 
which . . . was seen to be one of import- 
ance. " A regular series of lessons for the Infant 
Class teachers was started at once. Miss Hattie 
Morris, of Brooklyn, was invited to teach the first 
model lesson, which she did to a class of little 
people from Olivet Chapel, on February eighth. 
About fifty teachers were present at this lesson, 
which was given at 15 Bible House. Various 
plans were afterwards tried for rendering these 
lessons profitable and interesting. Sometimes one 
teacher would give all the lessons for one quarter, 
and sometimes the changes would be more fre- 
quent. From February 1881 to June 1888, the 
lessons were taught almost exclusively by Mrs. 
Wilbur F. Crafts, under whose efficient manage- 
ment the Primary Class became, in 1881, the New 
York Primary Teachers' Union, and many of the 
members took up a regular course of normal study 
and received diplomas from the New York State 
Sunday-School Association. 

Meanwhile other primary teachers had united. 
The Philadelphia teachers were the first actually 

Report of 9th International Sunday- School Convention, 
p. 68. 

" Silver Anniversary of the New York Sunday-School 
Primary Union, 1896, pp. 4-7. 



64 Sunday-School Movements 

to form a Primary Union, which they did on April 
26, 1879. Washington followed in 1881, the same 
year the New York Union was formed. Before 
long a desire was expressed for a central organiza- 
tion, not merely as a bond of union and means of 
improvement, but to spread the idea in other 
places. To Mrs. Crafts belongs the honor of in- 
augurating the National Primary Union, which 
was organized on May 13, 1884, ^t the fifth anni- 
versary of the Philadelphia Union, and of which 
she was made the president. 

During the International Convention of 1887, 
the National Primary Union was changed into the 
International Primary Union of the United States 
and British Provinces. Its object according to 
the constitution is " Mutual helpfulness, for better 
work by correspondence, publishing, interchange 
of papers on practical topics and the formation of 
Local Primary Teachers* Unions. " For some 
years the work of the International Union was 
confined to encouraging the formation of Primary 
Unions, which was carried on by means of cor- 
respondence and monthly publications. Its official 
organ is the " Quarterly Bulletin. " By Septem- 
ber, 1 89 1, forty Unions had been formed, " which 
were mostly large Unions in important centers of 
the country. " At the convention of 1893 fifty 
Unions were reported, and at the convention of 
1896 one hundred and ten Unions were reported. 
At this latter gathering, the International Primary 
Union was made auxiliary to the International 



The National Convention System 65 

Convention. Its constitution was amended to 
cover this new relation, and provision was made 
for a Primary Council consisting of a representa- 
tive from each state and province. This council 
held its first meeting in connection with the con- 
vention of 1899. There is also, according to pro- 
vision made in 1896, a Central Committee of the 
Council, appointed to act for the Council between 
the meetings of the International Conventions. In 
some states a primary secretary is employed to 
organize primary work and lecture on primary 
methods of instruction. All the teaching of this 
Union is supposed to be given in connection with 
the International Sunday-school lessons. The 
movement is rapidly spreading, and at the Conven- 
tion of 1899 over three hundred and ten Primary 
Unions were reported in good working order. 

Fifth and Sixth International Conventions. The 

Fifth International Convention was held in Bat- 
tery " D " Armory, Chicago, June i to 3, 1887. 
Mr. William Reynolds, of Illinois, was elected 
president. The session of the convention for 
primary workers was held in Farwell Hall, and 
was led by Mr. W. N. Hartshorn, of Massachu- 
setts. 

The Sixth International Convention was held in 
Pittsburg, Pa., June 24 to 2j, 1890, Hon. John G. 
Harris, of Alabama, being president. The execu- 
tive committee submitted an exhaustive report of 
the work done in the field, the then present condi- 



66 Sunday-School Movements 

tion as to organization, the importance of organi- 
zation, the need of more workers, Sunday-school 
statistics, financial plans, and other interesting 
matters. The reports from the field were hailed 
with delight, conveying, as they did, much en- 
couragement, and inspiring the Sunday-school 
workers to resolve to achieve greater triumphs be- 
fore the next convention. 

The Executive Committee and Field Workers. 

The executive committee and the lesson committee 
represent the two great departments of the work 
of the International Convention system. The latter 
will be described in a separate chapter. The execu- 
tive committee is composed of sixty members, one 
from each state and territory in the United States, 
and each province in Canada. These are recom- 
mended by the states, territories, or provinces, and 
elected for three years. During the interval be- 
tween the conventions, the work is directed by the 
executive committee, which meets annually, and 
by the central committee of the executive commit- 
tee, which is called by the chairman as often as is 
hecessary.^* The executive committee employs a 
field superintendent, also several field workers, and 
a colored field superintendent who labors among 
his own people in the South. 

The work is conducted through the system of 
conventions and institutes held in the various 
states or provinces, counties, and townships or dis- 

^*Work of the International Sunday- School Conven- 
tion, B. F. Jacobs, n. d. 1896 (?), p. i. 



The National Convention System 67 

tricts. The design is to reach every Sunday-school 
and every teacher in the land. The local ingather- 
ing is done by house-to-house visitation, and the 
upbuilding is accomplished by normal classes. 
This work, together with that of the lesson com- 
mittee, is designed to cover " the entire range of 
Sunday-school work save the planting of schools, 
which is left to the several denominations and the 
Sunday-school unions." ^^ 

In 1892 a number of field workers, who were 
invited in conference with the international execu- 
tive at Chautauqua, became deeply impressed with 
the significance of their work, and also with their 
limitations as individuals. Deeming that oppor- 
tunity for mutual contact and counsel would tend 
to strengthen and improve each field worker so 
privileged, they then and there organized a field 
workers' conference. For seven ^^ successive 
years evidence has continued to justify the wisdom 
of maintaining such a body, by the steady increase 
of membership and by the practical results to the 
work. Triennial conferences are held in connec- 
tion with the International Conventions, and other 
conferences in the intervals. The organization has 
also arranged for an exchange among its members 
of a large number of periodicals, besides other 
helpful and practical literature. The work of this 

"The Sunday-School Times, May 30, 1896, p. 343, 
article by William Reynolds. 

"Report of Field Workers' Department, Alfred Day; 
Report of 9th International Sunday- School Convention, 
1899, p. 48. 



68 Sunday-School Movements 

body owes much of its success and influence to the 
untiring labors of Mrs. M. H. Fergusson, who for 
six years acted as secretary. In 1899 the " Field 
Workers " were first honored by a distinctive place 
on the general programme of the International 
Convention. 

Seventh International Convention. The Seventh 
International Convention was held in St. Louis, 
Missouri, in connection with the Second World's 
Sunday-School Convention and the First Confer- 
ence of Field Workers, from August 30 to Sep- 
tember 5, inclusive, 1893. Hon. Lewis Miller, of 
Ohio, was chosen president. The chief discussion 
at this convention related to the international les- 
sons, and the system was approved. In connec- 
tion with the World's Sunday-School Convention 
a movement to introduce Sunday-school work 
into Japan was started, many persons contribut- 
ing one dollar apiece to begin a fund for the pur- 
pose. Also it was unanimously resolved by both 
bodies, " That it is the sense of this convention 
that the Home Class Department of the Sunday- 
school is a most practical and efficient method of 
Sunday-school work, and we do most heartily com- 
mend its adoption by all schools, and urge that all 
State and Provincial Associations make definite 
and systematic efforts to secure its general adop- 
tion. " 

Home Class Department. The idea of the Home 
Class Department may, for practical purposes, be 



The National Convention System 69 

said to have originated with W. A. Duncan, Ph. 
D., the same year that the Christian Endeavor 
movement was begun. Dr. Duncan says,^'' 
" While attending a District Sunday-school con- 
vention in New York state in the spring of 1881, 
a woman who had a class which she held on a 
veranda, expressed to the writer her regret that 
her pastor showed no sympathy in her work. 
Living among those who did not and could not at- 
tend Sunday-school, she had gathered a class of 
students upon her porch for the study of the Sun- 
day-school lesson. It was her idea that she was 
doing the work of the Sunday-school fully as 
much as any teacher attending its sessions, and 
that her efforts should receive the same recogni- 
tion and help accorded to other Sunday-school 
workers. . . . 

" Instantly the writer saw large possibilities in 
extending the boundaries of the Sunday-school to 
the furthest limit of the parish. This special case 
suggested to him the idea of the Home Class, or 
Home Department^ of the Sunday-school as a new 
and important feature of Sunday-school work. He 
immediately proposed a fundamental change in 
the basis of Sunday-school membership, a change 
so radical and important that when it was pre- 
sented to Bishop Vincent, he pronounced it the 
most valuable innovation in Sunday-school 
methods that had been proposed in one hundred 

" Report of 9th International Sunday-School Conven- 
tion, 1899, pp. 103-115. 



yo Sunday-School Movements 

years. The suggested change was the extension 
of the privileges of Sunday-school membership, 
with all its rights and privileges of Sunday-school 
membership, with all its rights of religious and 
social fellowship, invitations to the regular church 
and Sunday-school services, and to all entertain- 
ments, picnics, etc., and the free use of Sunday- 
school helps and library books, to all students who 
could not, or would not, attend the regular Sun- 
day-school, but who were willing to study the 
lesson outside the school room, keep a record, and 
report the same to the superintendent of the main 
school. It was the application of the University 
Extension and C. L. S. C. methods of work to 
Bible study, and made the Sunday-school as broad 
as the parish. ..." 

Early in 1882 Dr. Duncan devised the plan of 
appointing Sunday-school visitors, " who were to 
divide and canvass the parish for students, and 
exercise continuous visitation and supervision over 
the classes organized by them. " At first many 
superintendents and pastors opposed the plan of 
home classes, fearing that its successful operation 
would destroy the Sunday-schools. But experi- 
ence in New York state soon proved that through 
the work of the visitor the attendance at the regu- 
lar Sunday-school is increased. 

Home class work was commenced in Kansas in 
1883, in Connecticut in 1884, i^i Vermont and 
New Jersey in 1885, and in other states soon after- 



The National Convention System 71 

wards ; though on the whole it spread very slowly 
for the first ten or twelve years. 

Meanwhile others, not aware of this beginning, 
started work which differed in some features, yet 
aimed at the same general end. The Congrega- 
tional Sunday-School and Publishing Society, 
about the year 1885, issued a circular-letter pre- 
pared in substance by the Rev. Samuel W. Dike, 
LL. D., for the purpose of introducing what they 
called the " Home Department of the Sunday- 
school. " This, like the Home Class, required the 
studying of the lesson for not less than a half-hour, 
and the filling out of pledge and report cards to be 
sent to the Sunday-school superintendent. It dif- 
fered, however, from Dr. Duncan's original idea 
in making the home, that is the family rather than 
the formal class, the unit. It enlisted individuals 
or members of a family directly in the school, and, 
avoiding even the word '' class, " sought to bring 
out the home idea at this time " when congrega- 
tions and classes of all sorts are drawing attention 
away from the home altogether too much." ^® 

These two movements were before long united, 
and to-day the Home Department embraces the 
ideas of many earnest workers. It includes four 
kinds of " Home Classes " : — individual, family, 
neighborhood and correspondence. An interesting 

^®The Sunday- School Times, July 28, 1894, p. 447, 
art. by S. W. Dike; see also number for Oct. 30, 1897, 
p. 696. 



72 Sunday-School Movements 

phase of the work is that carried on among rail- 
road men, policemen, firemen, street car men, com- 
mercial travelers and soldiers. Especial letters 
were sent to the United States army in connection 
with the late Spanish war. 

Home Departments are denominational, like 
most Sunday-schools, but there in an interde- 
nominational phase of cooperation in the canvass 
and supervision of large districts. In the state of 
New York, Home Department Unions or Town 
Associations were formed in the very earliest years 
of the movement. As a result of the resolutions 
adopted by the Seventh International Convention, 
in 1893, the Home Department has since that time 
been a regularly organized branch of interde- 
nominational Sunday-school work. Five years 
later, at the meeting of the International Sunday- 
School Executive Committee in Philadelphia, it 
was decided to add to the previous requirements 
for becoming a '' banner " township, that of " mak- 
ing Home Department work one of its special 
features. " A " banner " township, county or 
state is one fully organized according to the na- 
tional plan. Indiana is now a banner state. Every- 
one of its ninety-two counties has adopted the 
Home Class Department work, and each has a 
superintendent whose duty it is to push it. The 
statistics for the United States and Canada, pre- 
sented at the International Convention of 1899, 
show forty-eight states and districts as having 
undertaken this work, a total of five thousand 



The National Convention System 73 

four hundred and ninety-seven Home Depart- 
ments, and a total membership of one hundred and 
eighty- three thousand, three hundred and ninety- 
seven. 

Eighth International Convention. The Eighth 
International Convention was held in Boston, 
Massachusetts, June 23 to 26, 1896. Hon. S. B. 
Capen, of Boston, was elected president. The 
sessions of the convention proper were held in the 
Auditorium of Tremont Temple. Two other halls 
of the same building were also used, besides Park 
Street Church which was used for committee 
meetings and for a special noonday service con- 
ducted by Mr. Moody. Each day's work was be- 
gun with a devotional hour under Mr. Moody's 
direction. 

Ninth International Convention. The Ninth 
International Convention was held in Atlanta, 
Georgia, April 26 to 30, 1899, ^i^h the Hon. Hoke 
Smith, of Georgia, as president. The regular ses- 
sions were held in the Grand Opera House, while 
the meetings of the Field Workers' Conference 
and of the Primary Union were held in the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church. At the request of 
the International Executive Committee, and in 
order to be in close relation to the International 
Sunday-School Convention, the two above men- 
tioned organizations slightly modified their con- 
stitutions, and adopted the names of the Field 
Workers' Department of the International Sun- 



74 Sunday-School Movements 

day-School Convention and The Primary Depart- 
ment of the International Sunday-School Conven- 
tion, respectively. The two papers most strongly 
in cooperation with this great work are the Sun- 
day School Times, of Philadelphia, and the Inter- 
national Evangel, of St. Louis. The latter sent 
a special train of delegates to the convention ; and 
the former gave all the delegates a trolley ride over 
the principal thoroughfares of the city. On the 
whole the convention was considered " one of the 
largest, most harmonious and successful Sunday- 
school meetings ever held. It was remarkable for 
the fidelity with which the program was carried 
out, and the results accomplished. " 

State Associations. The work of the different 
states differs more or less in character as well as 
in completeness, but all seem to have the same 
end in view, and it is difficult to show in a short 
space the vast amount of time and labor devoted to 
this cause. In some of the most active states the 
entire organization seems to hang on one or two 
individuals, and the methods used are the expres- 
sion of personality rather than the reproduction of 
machinery. In Massachusetts, for example, the 
State Association may be said to have been begun 
in 1889, though some such organization existed 
before that time. Its life and success are largely 
due to the devoted interest and practical help of 
Mr. W. N. Hartshorn. At his suggestion Miss 
Bertha F. Vella, an accomplished Primary worker, 



The National Convention System 75 

first began systematic organization. The state, 
consequently, is especially strong in Primary work. 
Unlike the other states, it is not organized by coun- 
ties and townships, but is divided into fifty-three 
districts, each district organization reaching the 
Sunday-schools and individual workers directly. 
The system is complete, and special maps are 
issued that all may understand its workings. 

Illinois, too, though one of the first states or- 
ganized, has by no means dropped into mere 
mechanical forms. Owing to Mr. B. F. Jacobs, 
Mr. W. B. Jacobs, and others, it is continually ad- 
vancing new methods. The Loyal Sunday-School 
Army is one of its special features. This " Army " 
aims to do, as well as to know, and holds up the 
model " On Time Every Time ; a Learned Lesson 
Every Time, and an Offering for Christ Every 
Time. " According to the system, simple records 
are to be kept, credits given, and rewards, usually 
certificates, presented to those who reach a fixed 
degree of excellence. Illinois is also especially 
strong in Normal work, hundreds of graduates 
receiving the State Sunday-School Association 
diplomas every year. Many County Normal Su- 
perintendents have been appointed, and post- 
graduate courses are encouraged. Under exist- 
ing conditions " union " normal classes are still 
necessary in many places, but the aim is to have a 
teachers* training class in every Sunday-school.^® 

"39th Illinois State Sunday-School Convention Re- 
port, 1897, pp. 25-29. 



76 Sunday -School Movements 

General. The object of this entire International 
Convention system is Organization for Evangeli- 
zation. A good summary is presented by the Sec- 
retary, Mr. M. D. Byers, in his Statistical Re- 
port ^^ of 1899, where he says, " There are many 
signs of advance along the line. City Sunday- 
School Unions are springing up in the larger 
cities; special attention is being given to house 
visitation in large cities, counties and states, with 
a great degree of success. Great advance is evi- 
dent in the various departments of the work, es- 
pecially in the Normal, Home and Primary De- 
partments. We have at present fifty-seven States, 
Provinces and Territories organized, of which 
twenty-three . . . (see appendix II) "are 
considered thoroughly organized, fourteen . . . 
where the organization is considered good, and 
twenty . . . where the organization is fair, 
leaving but six unorganized. . . . 

" Field Workers, Missionaries and Secretaries 
are now employed in thirty-three States, Provinces 
and Territories, the total number being sixty- 
seven. Wherever paid workers are employed the 
results are good and the reports are always better. 
Much has been accomplished in a general way 
since the Boston Convention by our International 
Field Workers, especially by way of strengthening 
and upbuilding the State and Provincial organiza- 
tions. " 

"9th International Convention Report, p. 255. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE UNIFORM OR INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL LESSON SYSTEM 

Preparatory Movements. The American Sun- 
day-School Union, formed in 1824, ^ did much to 
accustom the minds of the people of our nation to 
the thought of popular, united Bible study, irre- 
spective of sectarian divisions. It also took the 
first steps towards improving the loose and care- 
less methods of Bible study practised early in this 
century. In 1825 ^ it inaugurated the " Limited 
Lesson Scheme, " a reaction against the then ex- 
isting custom of ceaseless memorizing. This 
scheme provided a five years' course including the 
principal parts of the Bible. It was in the form 
of text and questions and was widely adopted. ^ 
Rev. Albert Judson was engaged, in 1826, to pre- 
pare a monthly series of questions on the lessons 
for the use of teachers. * The following year Mr. 

^American Journal of Education, vol. XV, Sunday- 
Schools, p. 708. 

* The International Evangel, Massachusetts Edition, 
May, 1895, p. 21. 

' Sunday- School Work, Pedagogical Seminary, June, 
1896, p. 384. 

*The Lesson System, by S. Gilbert, 1879, p. 11 flf. 

77 



jS Sunday-School Movements 

Judson published a question book, designed as " a 
first annual course of instruction. '* Two years 
later it was stated that '* the Selected Lessons are 
now almost universally introduced " and the ad- 
vantage was claimed that every class was to re- 
ceive instruction on the same lesson at the same 
time. 

In 1832 the first National Sunday-School Con- 
vention was held. From that time conventions and 
institutes did much to mould sentiment in favor of 
plans to improve Sunday-school instruction and 
to increase interest in this line. Little advance, 
however, was made in the lesson system till 1864, 
when, at a convention in Springfield, Illinois, Mr. 
Moody inspired the delegates with new life and 
Mr. B. F. Jacobs, Mr. Eggleston and others re- 
turned to their homes aflame with zeal. 

Beginnings. The " Sunday-School Teacher." 
In 1865 Rev. John H. Vincent, then a young 
Methodist preacher in Chicago, conceived the idea 
of the *' Sunday-School Teachers' Quarterly, " 
since called the " National Sunday-School 
Teacher. " ^ He was supported in this by the 
" Chicago Sunday-School Union. " This society 
undertook to be responsible for the salary of Mr. 
Vincent, who gave his whole time to the services 
of the " Union. '' The leading idea of the Sunday- 
School Teachers* Quarterly is shown in the first 
number, where we find such introductory sen- 

" The Lesson System, p. 25 ff . 



The International Lesson System 79 

tences as " The teacher needs teaching. The 
problem that perplexes one, another is able to 
solve. " " The obscure school has its ingenious 
and successful superintendent who devises prac- 
ticable plans. There are a thousand schools in 
need of his suggestions. " A special feature of the 
Quarterly was its four optional series of lessons, 
one of them arranged from the London Sunday- 
School Union, and one prepared by the editor. 
At the beginning of the following year the Quar- 
terly became a monthly named " The Sunday- 
School Teacher. " 

Mr. Vincent's lesson scheme was called " Two 
Years with Jesus: A New System of Sunday- 
School Study. " It included twenty-four lessons 
for the year, two Sabbaths being given to each les- 
son. These lessons ware accompa,nied in the 
" Teacher " by analysis, notes, questions, maps, 
anecdotes and other illustrations of the lesson. 
Also in connection with each lesson was a single 
selection of Scripture to be memorized, called the 
'' Golden Text " ; and " Home Readings " were 
appointed in much the same way as in modern 
leaflets. A " Plan of Analysis " was proposed 
and followed, designated by four P's and four 
D*s: Parallel Passages, Persons, Places, Dates, 
Doings, Doctrines and Duties. 

Only slight improvements have been made upon 
that plan since then. Every feature was not new, 
but the completeness of the scheme was new, and 
it introduced a new era. It presented the first 



8o Sunday-School Movements 

series of analytical lesson notes and scholars' 
papers ever periodically issued in the United 
States, if not in the world, and they were unde- 
nominational. A large number of schools in Chi- 
cago and vicinity at once adopted the system, and 
the first year four thousand copies of the 
" Teacher " and twenty thousand copies of the 
" Lesson Paper " were published. The plan was 
found to work admirably. 

But before the close of the first year the Rev. 
Mr. Vincent was convinced that providential indi- 
cations called him to labor in his own denomina- 
tion. He therefore severed his connection with 
the Chicago Union, May first, 1866, having been 
editor of the *' Quarterly " one year, and of the 
" Monthly " four months ; and went to New York 
to serve in connection with the Methodist Episco- 
pal Sunday-School Union. He continued, how- 
ever, to prepare lessons for the " Sunday-School 
Teacher " throughout the year. He was suc- 
ceeded as editor by the Rev. H. L. Hammond, who 
occupied the position four months, and he in turn 
was succeeded by Mr. C. R. Blackall, who was 
editor five months. The " Teacher " then passed 
from the control of the Chicago Sunday-School 
Union to that of the firm of Adams, Blackmer, 
and Lyons. Fortunately the Rev. Edward Eggles- 
ton, also a young Methodist minister, at this time 
became editor. Under Mr. Eggleston the scheme 
came into wide repute and was changed in 1869 
to the " National Sunday-School Teacher. " 



The International Lesson System 8i 

Within three or four years " The Teacher " at- 
tained a monthly circulation of thirty-five thousand 
copies, and the '* Scholars' Lesson Paper " a cir- 
culation of more than three hundred and fifty 
thousand. 

Efforts for National Uniformity. In the fall of 
1865, at an institute held by the Chicago Union 
the question had been formally proposed by Mr. 
Vincent : Is it practicable to introduce a uniform 
system of lessons into all our schools ? Dr. Eggles- 
ton, on the other hand, stoutly opposed any 
scheme of general prescribed uniformity in Sun- 
day-schools, as being repressive of individuality 
and freedom. Meanwhile many denominational 
papers were allowed to copy the " Teachers' " les- 
sons. Rivalry and imitation increased the tend- 
ency toward uniformity, until finally Mr. B. F. 
Jacobs of Chicago conceived the idea of extending 
the benefit of uniformity to the whole country and 
so to the whole world. In 1868 he induced the 
" Standard," the Baptist paper of the West, pub- 
lished in Chicago, to begin the printing of weekly 
lesson notes prepared by himself. These were the 
first lesson notes published regularly by any 
weekly paper in this country.® Soon after, he 
visited the East and urged the adoption of his 
plan by editors there. 

Mr. Jacobs also began to agitate the subject be- 
fore Conventions and Sunday-school Associations, 

' The International Evangel, Massachusetts edition, 
May, 1895, p. 21. 



8 a Sunday-School Movements 

though not without strong opposition from many 
quarters. In 1869, having charge of the separate 
conference of superintendents, he reported to the 
National Convention in Newark, New Jersey, in 
favor of uniform lessons. At Mr. Jacobs' sug- 
gestion, too, representatives from twenty-nine 
religious publishing houses met, August 8, 1871, 
to consider the subject. This meeting finally 
resolved to try the experiment, and appointed 
a committee of five to select a series of lessons 
for 1872. The five appointed were Drs. Eg- 
gleston, Vincent and Newton, Rev. H. C. Mc- 
Cook and Mr. B. F. Jacobs. Three of this 
committee in the absence of the two others, 
decided it could not be done then, and sent a 
notice to the papers headed " Uniform Lessons — 
The Failure. " By Mr. Jacobs' persistence, how- 
ever, the decision was reversed the next morning, 
the card to the public recalled, and a notice pub- 
lished that a series of lessons would soon be forth- 
coming. 

At first, not a single denomination ^ was, as a 
denomination, in favor of the International Lesson 
plan. Nearly every great religious publishing 
house was opposed to it ; nor could any one of these 
houses adopt it without rendering useless valuable 
plates and copyrights of series of lesson helps. Dr. 
Eggleston himself wished his lessons to be adopted 
rather than a union series formed. Nevertheless, 

' Yale Lectures on the Sunday- School, by H. C. 
Trumbull, chap. 3, p. 137. 



The International Lesson System 83 

difficulties were overcome and the first series of 
uniform lessons was that prepared for 1872 by 
Mr. Jacobs and his committee. 

Inaugniration of the Lesson System. The Fifth 
National Sunday-School Convention was held ^ at 
Indianapolis, Indiana, in April, 1872. Twenty-two 
states and one territory of the Union were repre- 
sented by two hundred and fifty-four delegates au- 
thorized according to the terms of the call, and by 
eighty-four representatives without such authori- 
zation. Representatives were also present from 
Canada, Great Britain, and India. The interest of 
this convention culminated, as was expected, in the 
uniform lesson question. Earnest speeches were 
made both for and against the measure, and an 
intensity of feeling was exhibited that is rarely 
seen in a public assembly. When at last the ques- 
tion was put, the measure was carried by a strong 
majority. In accordance with the vote, the first 
committee, — consisting of five clergymen and five 
laymen from the United States, and one clergyman 
and one layman from Canada, — was appointed to 
select the lessons for the first seven years' course, 
from 1873 to 1879. 

History of the Lesson Committee. The original 
command laid upon the committee was merely as 
far as possible to embrace a general study of the 
whole Bible, alternating between the Old and New 

" Report of 8th International Sunday- School Conven- 
tion, 1896, pp. II, 12. 



84 Sunday-School Movements 

Testaments semi-annually or quarterly, as they 
deemed best. Every six years, or at every second 
International Convention, a new committee has 
been appointed. At the Atlanta Convention in 
1878 the number of persons on the committee was 
increased from twelve to fourteen, beside two 
members of the Sunday-School Union of London, 
England, to act as corresponding members. Six 
members of the first committee were appointed on 
the second committee. At the Louisville Conven- 
tion, in 1884, eight members of the second com- 
mittee were appointed on the third. 

The fourth committee, formed at the Pittsburg 
Convention in 1890, was of fifteen members beside 
the English corresponding members and a corre- 
sponding member in France. Thirteen members of 
the third committee were appointed on this, four 
having served from the beginning. This com- 
mittee was instructed to provide a Temperance 
Lesson once in each quarter, in the regular order, 
if possible, and if not then, at the end of the 
quarter. At the St. Louis Convention, in 1893, all 
restrictions except the Temperance Lesson were 
withdrawn, leaving the committee at liberty to 
depart from the course previously selected, if a 
better plan was found. At this time, too, the course 
of study was shortened from seven years to six. 
The period of seven years had been chosen as rep- 
resenting the length of time an average child at- 
tends Sunday-school. It will be seen that owing 
to the previous arrangement of lessons lasting for 



The International Lesson System 85 

seven years and committees holding office only six 
years, this fourth committee, which was elected in 
1890 to hold office till 1896, prepared lessons to 
be used from 1893 to 1899. 

At the Convention in Boston, in 1896, a new 
committee of fifteen, beside the corresponding 
members, was formed. Eight of the last com- 
mittee were re-elected, and no new instructions 
were given. 

Methods of Work. These lesson committees are 
not formed at random or by nominations from the 
floor. The members are most carefully chosen 
with reference to denominational and territorial 
representation, as well as to personal qualifications. 
(For denominational representation, see appen- 
dix III.) The meetings are held in widely distant 
cities, and usually six or eight times during each 
period of six years.^ The traveling expenses of 
the committee are paid by the leading publishers of 
the International Lesson Helps, and no other ex- 
penses have been incurred. Time and thought 
have been freely given for love of the cause. 

The method of selecting the lessons is for the 
American Committee to first arrange and agree 
upon an outline for the entire term, and second, 
to select the lessons, usually a dozen or so verses 
each, with the Titles and Golden Texts for one 
year. This selection is then sent to the correspond- 

• Report of 8th International Sunday-School Conven- 
tion, 1896, p. 168. 



86 Sunday-School Movements 

ing members of the committee, and carefully 
considered by them. After three or four months 
it is returned to the American Committee with 
such changes or modifications as the corresponding 
members think best to make. At the next meeting 
of the American Committee the work is carefully 
reviewed and revised, the suggestions from abroad 
are accepted or declined, as is thought best, and in 
some instances new changes are made. The les- 
sons as revised are then sent to the press. The 
development of the lessons is left absolutely to 
each denomination or publisher. 

Principles and Advantages. The fundamental 
principles ^° that govern this system are : — 

First, a uniform lesson for all grades in all 
schools. This enables the publishing houses by 
cooperation, and incites them by competition, to 
employ the best talent available. Twenty-five 
years ago, when the system was started, the ad- 
vantage in this line was no small consideration. 
This uniformity also increases the usefulness of 
teachers' meetings for the study of the lessons ; 
it enables people in different grades, perhaps mem- 
bers of the same family, to more easily help each 
other and feel in unity ; and it facilitates the chang- 
ing of a scholar from one school to another. 

Second, substantially the whole of the Old and 
New Testaments to be covered by the lessons in 
equal proportions. This is to prevent the neglect 

" The Sunday- School and Its Work, The Independent, 
Feb. 4, 1897, A. F. Schauffler, D.D. 



The International Lesson System gy 

of large portions of the Bible, as is apt to be the 
case when less systematic work is required. A 
glance at the relative number of lessons assigned 
to the various books of the Bible from 1873 ^^ 
1899 will show how the lessons have been dis- 
tributed. (See appendix IV.) More than one- 
third of the lessons have been from the Gospels. 

Third, the course to be completed in six years. 
As the average child was found to attend Sun- 
day-school for seven years, he will thus have cov- 
ered the entire ground of the Bible. 

Fourth, a temperance lesson to be chosen in 
each quarter of each year. 

Primary Adaptation. For some years the ques- 
tion of having separate lessons for the primary 
has been agitated. At the St. Louis Convention, ^^ 
in 1893, the lesson committee formally asked " Is 
it your judgment that we would better hereafter 
have a separate series of lessons for the Primary 
Department ? or, do you still adhere to the plan of 
uniform lessons for all classes and in all the 
schools ? " This question was discussed in the 
Primary Workers* Conference, held in the Second 
Presbyterian Church in St. Louis during the Con- 
vention. No such meeting of primary workers 
had ever before been held. The results reached 
were embodied in a resolution earnestly desiring 
that the old plan be continued ; and after the report 
of this conference was presented to the Conven- 

" Report of 8th International Sunday-School Conven- 
tion, 1896, pp. 169-170. 



88 Sunday-School Movements 

tion, not a voice was there raised in opposition to 
the decision. 

Nevertheless, at the meeting of the lesson com- 
mittee, held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1894, 
a large body of primary workers met it with peti- 
tions for a separate primary course. Among the 
petitioners were many of the most influential 
workers for whom the convention exists, and they 
assured the committee that the best interests of the 
common cause would be served by the course sug- 
gested. The committee took the facts laid before 
them into most careful consideration. Though 
still in favor of uniformity, the committee deter- 
mined to try the experiment. They received help 
from persons who had made a special study of the 
child-mind, and selected a course of optional pri- 
mary lessons, for one year. The special lesson list 
first appeared in the Sunday School Times of the 
twenty-eighth of September, 1895. 

Eecent Measures. With the exception of the 
optional primary lessons, the committee has so far 
worked purely chronologically through the Bible, 
with no educational ideals. The recent lessons, 
however, have shown a tendency to keep to one 
subject, as the Life of Christ, or the Acts and 
Epistles, for a continuous year. It was urged, 
too, at the Boston Convention, 1896, that it was 
not wise to have four temperance lessons a year. 
But as some wanted twelve temperance lessons a 
year, no change was made. 



The International Lesson System 89 

The new committee, whose lessons began with 
1900, have planned ^^ to make a course of study 
giving two and a half years to the Old Testament, 
and three and a half to the New Testament, in- 
cluding a year and a half of continuous study of 
the Life of Christ, by the use of a harmony of the 
four Gospels. The course has begun with the 
lessons on the Life of Christ. Prominence is to 
be given to biography ; selections from the Proph- 
ets and Epistles are to be studied in chrono- 
logical sequence in connection with the historical 
parts ; and parallel and related passages are to re- 
ceive greater attention than heretofore. 

The lesson committee appointed a sub-commit- 
tee to consider the matter of a separate primary 
course, the one offered by the last committee hav- 
ing been given up after a trial of one year. Many 
communications and suggestions were received 
from both America and Great Britain, but after 
extended investigation the committee decided that 
" it could not at present unite on any separate 
plan of lessons for primary classes which would be 
generally acceptable in connection with the Inter- 
national Lesson System." 

On the whole the committee has decided to 
" keep most prominently in mind those who most 
need its help, that is, those least able to select a fit 
course of lessons for themselves." This suggests 
to those better prepared for Sunday-school teach- 

" Report of 9th International Sunday-School Conven- 
tion, 1899, pp. 51-53. 



90 Sunday-School Movements 

ing the need of care, lest they measure themselves 
by low standards. At present Sunday-school work 
is beset with problems, but strong hands are grap- 
pling with the difficulties, and time alone can 
show what advances will be made in the new 
century. 



CHAPTER V 

INSTITXTTES AND THE CHAUTAUQUA MOVE- 
MENT 

The Institute Idea. As early as 1833, Dr. 
Charming said, ** Higher abiHty is required for 
the office of an educator of the young, than for 
that of a statesman." He frequently dwelt on this 
thought and sought to inspire others with an ap- 
preciation of the teacher's high office. In 1837 he 
said : " One of the surest signs of the regeneration 
of society will be the elevation of the art of teach- 
ing to the highest rank in the community. . . . 
Socrates is now regarded the greatest man in an 
age of great men. The name king has grown 
dim before that of apostle. To teach, whether by 
word or action, is the highest function on earth." 
He pleaded for an institution in which teachers 
should be professionally trained. That same year 
he preached his great sermon on Sunday-schools 
at the meeting of the Unitarian Sunday-School 
Society where, after describing the importance of 
knowledge and skill on the part of the teacher, 
he said, ** Like all schools, the Sunday-school must 
owe its influence to its teachers. I would, there- 
fore, close this discourse with saying, that the 

91 



92 Sunday-School Movements 

most gifted of our congregation cannot find a wor- 
thier field of labor than the Sunday-school. . ." 
Since 1837, institutes for the improvement of 
teachers and methods in the public schools have 
been frequently held. Mr. Barnard, who was 
prominent in originating and conducting these 
gatherings said :^ " A Teachers' Institute is a 
gathering of teachers — old and young, experienced 
and inexperienced, of both sexes, and of different 
grades — in such number as will develop the sym- 
pathies and power of a common pursuit, and yet 
not so large as to exclude the freedom of individ- 
ual action; for a period of time long enough to 
admit of a systematic plan of operations, and yet 
not so protracted as to prove a burdensome ex- 
pense, or an interruption to other engagements; 
under the direction of men whose only claim to 
respect and continued attention must be their ex- 
perience and acknowledged success in the sub- 
jects assigned them, and in a course of instruction 
at once theoretical and practical, combined with 
opportunities of inquiry, discussion and familiar 
conversation." 

Beginnings. Before long Sunday-school work- 
ers began to feel the desirability of this form of 
instruction, and to see its appropriateness for Sun- 
day-school teachers. Even before this movement, 
as long ago as 1827, the New York Sunday-School 

' The Lesson System, by Simeon Gilbert, 1879, pp. 
18-20. 



The Chautauqua Movement 93 

Union,^ in its Eleventh Annual Report, had par- 
ticularly recommended this plan *' of a school 
for the training of Sabbath-school teachers." But 
the recommendation appears not to have been car- 
ried out. The Unitarians, perhaps owing to Dr. 
Channing's influence, seem to have adopted the 
plan earlier and with less effort than other Sun- 
day-school bodies. The Rev. Henry G. Spaul- 
ding, when secretary of the Unitarian Sunday- 
School Society, spoke ^ of a Sunday-school teach- 
ers' institute held by that society in 1854, as though 
there was nothing unusual in such a gathering. 
Possibly these institutes were but slightly differ- 
ent from what other workers held under the name 
of " conventions.'' However this may be, the 
wide-spread national movement was not an out- 
growth of this Unitarian beginning. 

In 1847, the Rev. Dr. D. P. Kidder, correspond- 
ing secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday- 
School Union, suggested that the teachers' insti- 
tute, so profitable to public school teachers, would 
be of use in improving the haphazard methods of 
Sunday-school work then in vogue. He strongly 
urged the formation of " Normal Sunday- 
Schools." The next year he renewed his appeal, 
but expressed his discouragement in the words 
" We confess, however, that we fear the day is 

*The Sabbath-School Index, by R. G. Pardee, 1868, 
p. 32. 

• Sixty Years of the Unitarian Sunday- School So- 
ciety, Henry G. Spaulding, 1887, p. 12. 



94 Sunday-School Movements 

distant when the Church will take as high ground 
on this subject as that already assumed by several 
states of this Union." 

The First Permanent Institute. In 1857, ^^v. 
John H. Vincent, then pastor of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Joliet, Illinois, organized 
what he called a *' Normal Class " in his church. 
This was very successful. At the Rock River 
Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, held in Chicago, in October, i860, the 
Conference Sunday-School Committee, at the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Vincent, reported — " The import- 
ance of Teachers' Institutes to the educational in- 
terests of our country cannot have escaped your 
attention. May we not profitably introduce some- 
thing similar among us? Such an institute, con- 
ducted by our ablest Sunday-school educators, 
could not fail to elevate our standard, and im- 
prove our system of religious culture." This re- 
port was unanimously adopted by the Conference. 
At the Galena District Convention, held the fol- 
lowing year, on April 16 and 17, in Freeport, 
Illinois, the question was proposed and discussed, 
*' How may we carry out the suggestion of our 
Conference Sunday-School Committee, relative to 
the Sunday-School Teachers' Institute ? " A con- 
stitution was adopted, the fourth article of which 
read,, " A meeting of the Institute shall be held 
during each convention of the District. Each Sub- 
District shall hold an Institute at such time as the 
President, resident Vice-President, and resident 



The Chautauqua Movement 95 

Secretary shall determine." On Wednesday, the 
second day of the Convention, an excellent insti- 
tute program was carried out under the direction 
of Mr. Vincent, who was made president. This 
was probably the first regularly organized and 
permanent Sunday-School Teachers' Institute in 
the country. 

Other Early Institutes. The district was sub- 
divided, and sub-district institutes were held that 
year at Council Hill, Mount Carroll, Warren and 
Freeport.* Practical normal drills were given, 
and the good attendance and great enthusiasm 
were most gratifying. On June 25 and 26, 186 1, 
the Detroit District held the first of the semi-an- 
nual meetings of its permanent Methodist Episco- 
pal Sunday-School Institute. The session was 
held in Detroit, with the Rev. M. Hickey as presi- 
dent. The following year three more districts 
organized institutes. On November 17, 1864, an 
elaborate paper was read by Mr. Vincent before 
the Cook County Sunday-School Teachers' Con- 
vention, in Chicago, urging " A permanent Sun- 
day-School Teachers' Institute for the North- 
west." The Chicago workers took the suggestion, 
and that same year a " winter course " of institute 
lectures and other exercises was carried through. 
A great variety of maps, pictures, and panoramic 
views adorned the walls ; three or four tables were 
filled with curiosities from the Holy Land; one 

* Sunday- School Institutes and Normal Classes, J. 
H. Vincent, 1872, p. 66. 



96 Sunday-School Movements 

evening was devoted to the study of Jerusalem; 
and many other means were adopted to make the 
sessions interesting and profitable. 

Quite independently of this movement in the 
West, a similar line of work was started in the 
East. During the years 1863 and 1864, some east- 
em convention leaders observed ° that, the Sun- 
day-school conventions which were once interest- 
ing were in danger of losing their power. They 
had fallen into a routine, and had begun to be mo- 
notonous to the regular attendants, because they 
were not sufficiently practical and profitable. The 
question was therefore forced upon the leaders, 
" What must be done ? " Deliberation and con- 
sultation brought the answer : " We need more 
instruction/' In the State Sunday-School Con- 
vention at Buffalo, New York, in 1864, the Rev. 
W. A. Niles suggested to Mr. Pardee the idea of a 
Sunday-school institute. On November 22, of the 
same year, a program was issued, and on De- 
cember 6, Mr. R. G. Pardee and Mr. Ralph Wells 
held their first regular Sunday-School Institute. 
The experiment proved successful, and from that 
time Mr. Pardee and Mr. Wells devoted their 
energies to this kind of service. Mr. Vincent, too, 
had by this time given himself, with the utmost 
enthusiasm, to aggressive institute work, both east 
and west, and within ten years after the first Illi- 
nois Sunday-School Teachers' Institute the plan 

• Sabbath-School Index, p. 92. 



The Chautauqua Movement 97 

had been widely adopted throughout the United 

States. 

Biblical Museums. In 1866, at the request of 
Dr. Wise, Mr, Vincent had been appointed Gen- 
eral Agent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday- 
School Union, to travel throughout the country 
holding institutes, and furthering all the interests 
of the Society. This he had done with such ac- 
tivity and success, that in 1868 the General Con- 
ference created a Department of Sunday-School 
Instruction, making Dr. Vincent the superintend- 
ent.** In October, 1869, at what has been called 
the *' Anniversary Institute " of the Sunday- 
School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
held in Columbus, Ohio, the Normal Department 
of the Union opened its Biblical Museum. This 
large and valuable collection of Oriental antiqui- 
ties comprises more than one hundred and fifty of 
the photographs of the Palestine Exploration, 
two hundred highly colored diagrams, illustra- 
tive of Eastern manners and customs, antiqui- 
ties of Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, and Greece, 
and the beautiful photographs of the Ord- 
nance Survey of Jerusalem. It includes models 
of Eastern objects of interest, — a model of the 
Temple of Solomon, a model of the Jewish Taber- 
nacle, a model of an Eastern khan, or inn, and 

° Growth of the Sunday- School Idea in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, Methodist Quarterly Review, July, 
1871, by J. M. Freeman, p. 410. 



98 Sunday-School Movements 

one of the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding 
country. It includes also complete Eastern cos- 
tumes; and valuable relics, as lamps, bottles, and 
shells; and many other objects " designed to teach 
and unfold Scripture truth by way of suggestion 
and of visible illustration." 

After this, other biblical museums were started. 
The Methodist Sunday-school of Akron organ- 
ized one which was geological, historical and 
archaeological.'^ Mr. A. O. Van Lennep, of New 
York, made one of the largest collections of pic- 
tures, maps, models, Sunday-school requisites, 
specimens, and Oriental curiosities in the United 
States, and used them to illustrate popular lectures 
which he gave before conventions, institutes, nor- 
mal classes, and Sunday-schools. This collection 
is now in the possession of Rev. Dr. J. S. Ostran- 
der, of Brooklyn, but is little used. A Mrs. L. 
Von F. Mountford, a native of Jerusalem, also has 
an interesting Oriental collection, of which she 
would like to make use. But whatever the ex- 
planation may be, there seems to be little demand 
for instruction and help of this kind. Makers and 
publishers of Sunday-school supplies do not offer 
such objects for sale, nor help to rouse a desire for 
them. The average Sunday-school teacher of to- 
day could not, if he would, secure a model of 
Palestine or Jerusalem. In short, this particular 

*The Modern Sunday- School, John H. Vincent, 1887, 
pp. 135. 301. 



The Chautauqua Movement 99 

movement, desirable as it seems, is not progress- 
ing. 

Growth. Sunday-school Institutes, however, 
have spread all over the Christian world. Many 
men are employed to organize and conduct them. 
It has become part of the International Sunday- 
School System that every state or province should 
have a state or provincial institute, and that where 
practicable, the counties and smaller divisions 
should also have institutes. From its earliest 
years, the Normal Department of the Methodist 
Episcopal Sunday-School Union, under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Vincent and a standing normal com- 
mittee, prepared courses of study, conducted ex- 
aminations, and issued diplomas.® This normal 
work, too, has spread, until to-day some states 
and some denominations look for a normal class in 
every Sunday-school. 

The First Chantauqna Assembly. Under a char- 
ter granted by the Legislature of the State of New 
York, in 1871, a body of Methodists held a num- 
ber of camp-meetings at Fair Point, Chautauqua. 
During the fourth of these meetings, held in Au- 
gust, 1873, Dr. Vincent and Mr. Miller visited 
the place, and selected it for an " Assembly " to 
be held the following year. This Chautauqua 
Sunday-School Assembly was formally instituted 
by the board of managers of the Sunday-School 

• The Normal Glass, J. L. Hurlbut, n. d., p. i. 

i.»fe. 



lOO Sunday-School Movements 

Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church at their 
regular meeting m October, 1873, when the fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted : ^ " Resolved, 
That we approve the project of a Sunday-school 
teachers* assembly in August, 1874, on the Chau- 
tauqua Lake camp-ground, and that we refer the 
whole matter, with full power to order and ar- 
range, to the committee of this board in charge 
of the normal department." This action was in 
response to a request from the executive commit- 
tee of the Chautauqua Lake Camp-Ground Asso- 
ciation. 

Immediately after the adjournment of the board 
a meeting of the normal committee was held. The 
design of the assembly was decided to be ® sub- 
stantially as follov;s : " To hold a prolonged insti- 
tute, or normal class, occupying from ten to fif- 
teen days, for the completion of the course of 
normal study prescribed by the department (see 
Hand-book, 1872, pp. 48-53) ; to secure the pres- 
ence of as many pastors, superintendents, and 
other officers and teachers, as possible, that a new 
and general interest may be awakened throughout 
the Church on the subject of normal training for 
Sunday-school workers ; to command as far as 
practicable the best talent in the country to assist 
in the conduct of this assembly ; to utilize the gen- 
eral demand for summer rest by uniting daily 
study with healthful recreation, and thus render 

•The Chautauqua Movement, J. H. Vincent, 1886, pp. 
23-25. 



The Chautauqua Movement lOi 

the occasion one of pleasure and instruction com- 
bined. The name, " The Sunday-school Teachers' 
Assembly ' was adopted. Lewis Miller, Esq., of 
Akron, Ohio, was elected president. Rev. Dr. J. 
H. Vincent superintendent of instruction, Rev. 
Henry M. Simpson secretary. The committee is- 
sued an announcement urging all pastors and su- 
perintendents to organize normal classes at once 
in their several churches, that before August i, 
1874, there might be a large number of teachers 
ready to begin with the second or junior course of 
normal study. The committee at the same meet- 
ing passed the following resolution : * Whereas 
this course of study is in substantial agreement 
with that adopted by the normal departments of 
the Baptist, Presbyterian, and American Sunday- 
school Union boards, and as the leading workers 
in these and other branches of the Christian 
Church will be at the assembly to assist by their 
experience and counsels, and as it is our purpose 
to make the occasion one of the largest catholicity, 
the committee cordially invite workers of all de- 
nominations to attend, and to participate in the 
services of the assembly.' " The assembly was 
widely advertised, and for a whole year efficient 
committees worked hard. 

On Tuesday evening, August 4, 1874, the first 
Chautauqua Assembly opened. It was not a 
" camp-meeting " in any sense, except that it was 
held in the woods, and most of the members lived 
in tents. No ** evangelistic " services were held. 



I02 Sunday-School Movements 

It was a Sunday-school institute protracted to the 
length of two weeks. The work may be sum- 
marized as follows : ^* " Twenty-two lectures on 
the Sunday-school work, — theory and practice. 
Seven lectures on Bible history, geography, evi- 
dences, etc. Sectional Meetings: nine primary; 
six intermediate; one senior; one superintend- 
ents'; four pastors* and superintendents'. Eight 
normal-class and institute-conductors' conver- 
sazioni. Normal sections A, B, C, and D, six 
each. Three teachers' meetings for the prepara- 
tion of the lesson ; two specimen Sunday-school 
sessions ; four Bible-readings ; three praise serv- 
ices ; two children's meetings ; and six sermons. 

" All the leading Protestant denominations were 
represented. Persons were present from twenty- 
five States; also from Ontario, Montreal, Nova 
Scotia, Ireland, Scotland, and India." The 
" Vesper Service " was considered one of the most 
beautiful and impressive features of the occasion. 
Besides the more serious aspect, there were recrea- 
tive features such as concerts, fireworks, and hu- 
morous lectures. The crowning work of the De- 
partment of Recreation was a Park of Palestine, 
about seventy-five by one hundred and twenty 
feet, presenting accurately the outline of the coun- 
try, the principal hills and valleys, the water- 
courses, and the cities. 

Expansion and Character of the Chautanqna 
Movement. Since this first session of the Chan- 

"The Chautauqua Movement, p. 362. 



The Chautauqna Movement 103 

tauqua Assembly, similar meetings have been held 
at Chautauqua every summer. While of Method- 
ist origin, they have from the first been of a broad 
and catholic nature. Nearly all the leading de- 
nominations are represented on the faculty. All 
churches have opportunity to meet in their several 
centres for prayer and conference, and on one day 
every season, a denominational congress is held. 
The utmost good feeling has always prevailed. 

Breadth of view is also characteristic of Chau- 
tauqua in educational matters. Mr. Miller and 
Dr. Vincent both believe in ** work-day power." 
They hold that " life is one, and that religion be- 
longs everywhere. Our people, young and old, 
should consider educational advantages as so 
many religious opportunities. Every day should 
be sacred. . . Kitchen work, farm work, shop 
work, as well as school work, are divine. . . 
The proper study of the Divine Word leads to and 
requires the more careful study of the Divine 
works. The Author of the Book is the Creator 
of the universe, and the Ruler of the race." Ac- 
cordingly, while the exercises of the first season 
were devoted to the Sunday-school, since then a 
great variety of secular studies have been gradu- 
ally introduced. Practical causes have helped to 
bring this about. The theory of Sunday-school 
work was still simple, or little understood, so that 
the workers were not content with the discussion 
of the same old questions year after year. Again, 
it was thought possible to insist upon too many 



I04 Sunday-School Movements 

hours of Bible study each day. Many people came 
who were not interested in Sunday-school discus- 
sion or in biblical studies. These needed the As- 
sembly because they needed the awakening which 
comes from great ideas, and the Assembly needed 
them because of the financial support which they 
gave to the organization. 

Not only have the subsequent programs of the 
Assembly differed from the first, but entire new 
departments and " schools " have been added. In 
1879, the Chautauqua Teachers' Retreat, for secu- 
lar teachers, and the School of Languages were 
organized. Since then schools of Literature, 
Science, Psychology and Pedagogy, Music, Prac- 
tical Arts, and even Physical Training, have been 
added. Moreover, a College of Liberal Arts, and 
a School of Theology have been formed. Char- 
tered by the State of New York, Chautauqua has 
the right ^^ to foster learning of a grade equal to 
that of the full-orbed university, and to confer all 
university degrees. 

Nor does the work of Chautauqua end with the 
camp limits. Chautauqua pleads for a universal 
education, and seeks to give to people out of school 
opportunities for intellectual progress. One of 
its chief and characteristic features is the Chau- 
tauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, organized 
at the Chautauqua Summer Assembly in 1878. 
Its purpose is " to provide a systematic course of 
reading in history, literature, science and art, thus 

" The Chautauqua Movement, pp. 36, 182. 



- — VV"" 1«il 



The Chautauqua Movement 105 

securing to those who have been denied college 
opportunities, something of the college student's 
general outlook upon the world and life, and to 
give college graduates an opportunity to review 
the studies of earlier years." The course is for 
four years, and may be pursued by individual 
readers at home, or by local circles. At the end 
of the four years' course the reader is entitled to 
a certificate, upon which seals are put for written 
review work and for extra reading. Religion does 
not enter into this work, except in the two mottoes 
'* We study the Word and the Works of God " 
and '* Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the 
Midst." Since its organization the Chautauqua 
Literary and Scientific Circle has enrolled ^^ more 
than 250,000 members, of whom nearly 50,000 
have graduated from the four years' course. The 
Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts is on much 
the same plan as the reading circle, only that 
study is required instead of reading, theses must 
be submitted, and on every part of the college cur- 
riculum the students must pass written examina- 
tions in the presence of eye-witnesses. 

As might be expected, the movement at Chau- 
tauqua soon brou^it into existence similar assem- 
blies, other " Chautauquas." With all its depart- 
ments, Chautauqua, at Chautauqua Lake, as Presi- 
dent Harper of the University of Chicago said,^® 

"The Chautauqua Reading Circle (leaflet), 1899, p. 2. 
" American Cliurcji History, vol. V, by J. M. Buckley, 
p. 672. 



io6 Sunday-School Movements 

*' is something small and insignificant when com- 
pared with the world-wide Chautauqua. When 
we recall the scores of Chautauqua assemblies 
throughout the United States, the Oxford summer 
meeting established on the basis of the Chautau- 
qua idea, the hundreds of thousands of readers 
who have been connected with the Chautauqua 
Literary and Scientific Circle, the tens of thou- 
sands of homes into which a new light has pene- 
trated as a result of the Chautauqua idea, the hun- 
dreds of thousands of books which have been 
bought and read by those who were eager for a 
learning which had been denied them, we obtain 
a faint conception of the meaning and significance 
of the term * Chautauqua.' " 

Development of Sunday-School Normal Work. 

Interesting as the entire movement is, it only con- 
cerns us as a setting for the Sunday-School Nor- 
mal Department, and the more recent Chautauqua 
Normal Union. These include not only the stimu- 
lating exercises of the summer sessions at Chau- 
tauqua proper, but the work of other " Chautau- 
qua " assemblies, and the local and home work 
of the members of the Union. It should be re- 
membered that the first Chautauqua Assembly, in 
1874, was held under the auspices of the Normal 
Department of the Sunday-School Union of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. For several years 
the normal diplomas of Chautauqua were awarded 



The Chautauqua Movement 107 

in the name of that Union/* and a close connec- 
tion has always been maintained between the two 
organizations. The nonnal courses for both 
Unions are identical. 

At the Chautauqua Assembly in 1876, a com- 
mittee on a *' Course of Normal Class Lessons " 
was appointed. The members represented ten dif- 
ferent denominations of Christians. They made 
a report, which was unanimously adopted at a 
meeting of persons of all denominations interested 
in Sunday-school normal work. The report in- 
cluded the following : — ** That the course com- 
prise forty lessons, to be called the * Chautauqua 
Course of Sabbath-school Normal Lessons ; ' the 
time of each lesson to be divided between the con- 
sideration of the ' Bible and its contents/ and the 
* theory and practice of teaching.' 

" The Chautauqua Course of Sabbath-school 
Normal Lessons may be adopted and used by any 
church, society, union, association, or institution 
of learning. ... 

" Normal classes who desire to issue diplomas 
may obtain them from the Chautauqua Commit- 
tee, with the heading ' Chautauqua Sabbath- 
school Normal Class Diploma,' and upon which 
may be placed the stamp or name of the church, 
society, union, association, or institution of learn- 
ing, with which the class is connected ; these diplo- 

"The Normal Class (a leaflet), by Jesse L. Hurlbut, 
D. D., n. d., p. I. 



io8 Sunday-School Movements 

mas to be signed by the local committee of in- 
struction." 

This system required " Normal Praxes/' or in 
other words, written exercises on the different pro- 
cesses of the teacher's work, as, thinking, memo- 
rizing, finding central and root thoughts, word- 
picturing, analogies, collecting illustrations, lines 
of approach and map-drawing. The books to be 
read were: Fitch on Questioning; Freeman on 
Illustration ; Trumbull on Reviews; Fitch on At- 
tention; Vincent's Helpful Hints; Chautauqua 
Text-Books, No. i. How to Study the Bible; No. 
8, What Noted Men Think of the Bible; No. lo, 
What is Education? No. ii, Socrates; No. 12, 
Pcstalozzi; No. 15^, Froebel; No. 18, Christian 
Evidences; No. 19, The Book of Books. Adapta- 
tions of these lessons were made for pupils of all 
grades. 

There were also " Teachers' Union " and " post- 
graduate " courses provided. The post-graduate 
course, as announced in the Hand-book for 1880, 
required the following books to be studied : Out- 
lines of Church History, Dr. Hurst ; Short His- 
tory of English Bible, Dr. Freeman ; Companion 
to the Bible, Dr. Barrow ; The Church School, Dr. 
Vincent ; Christological Studies, Dr. Buck. Each 
candidate for a certificate was expected to present 
two papers containing not less than one thousand 
words each, one on a biblical, the other on a Sun- 
day-school theme. Candidates were also required 



The Chautauqua Movement 109 

to answer in writing a series of fifty questions, 
based upon the above books. 

The Assembly Normal Union. In 1880, at the 
Sunday-School Centennial, in London, at Dr. Vin- 
cent's suggestion, a committee was appointed to 
prepare an international course of study.^^ This 
International Sunday-School Normal Committee, 
as it was called, was composed of workers in Eng- 
land, America and France. The lessons were at 
first used by comparatively few.^® When the first 
series of books was issued by the committee, an 
association of assembly conductors and teachers 
of normal classes was formed in America, for the 
purpose of bringing the normal Sunday-school 
work throughout the country to a common stand- 
ard. This was in 1884. The association was 
called the Assembly Normal Union. Outline les- 
sons were prepared and a course of reading ar- 
ranged in connection with them, including the 
books of the International Normal Committee. 

The Chautauqua Normal Union. In the sum- 
mer of 1886, a reorganization was effected, by 
which the Assembly Normal Union became a de- 
partment of the Chautauqua University, under the 
name of the Chautauqua Normal Union. Its 
Board of Counsel holds an annual meeting at 

"The Chautauqua Normal Union (a leaflet), J. L. 
Hurlbut, 1897 (?), pp. 4, 5- 
"•♦The Study," No. for Jan., 1885, p. 2. 



no Sunday-School Movements 

Chautauqua. The course, according to the cur- 
rent circular, includes studies in the Bible and in 
Sunday-school work, to be carried on through 
four years. Each year's work, however, is sepa- 
rate, and is recognized by a separate certificate 
of postal-card size, awarded to all who complete 
it and pass the requisite examination. When four 
such certificates have been obtained upon dif- 
ferent annual courses, they entitle the person whose 
name they bear, to the full diploma of the Chau- 
tauqua Normal Union, upon payment of the di- 
ploma fee of twenty-five cents. The courses for 
the last four years were as follows, the first book 
of each course to be studied, the second to be read : 
Course of 1897, — Studies in the Book of Acts, B. 

B. Loomis ; The Life of St. Paul, James Stalker. 
Course of 1898, — Studies in the Four Gospels, 
J. L. Hurlbut; The Book Divine, J. E. Price. 
Course of 1899, — Studies in Old Testament His- 
tory, J. L. Hurlbut; Teaching and Teachers, H. 

C. Trumbull. Course of 1900, — Revised Normal 
Lessons, J. L. Hurlbut; The Modern Sunday- 
School, J. H. Vincent. The courses may be taken 
up in any order which the student chooses. 

There is also a Junior Department of the Chau- 
tauqua Normal Union, for children and young 
people. The courses of this department are strictly 
biblical and not normal. They are divided into 
two grades, — the Junior, or Children's grade, in 
general for those under twelve years of age, and 
the Intermediate, or Young People's grade, for 



The Chautauqua Movement 1 1 1 

those between twelve and eighteen years of age. 
Diplomas are given to those who attain seventy 
per cent, in the examinations of a first course, and 
seals are given for equal results in subsequent 
courses. The juniors and intermediates have dif- 
ferent diplomas, though in some cases they may 
take the same courses.^^ 

The influence of this Chautauqua Normal 
Union is by no means limited to the hundreds who 
Work for Chautauqua honors. Many individuals, 
and even organizations throughout the country, 
use the books recommended by it. Yet with all 
this effort it must be acknowledged that the great 
majority of Sunday-school teachers are still prac- 
tically untouched by the Chautauqua movement. 

Sunday-School Normal Work in other Institu- 
tions of learning. Some effort has been made to 
introduce preparation for Sunday-school work 
into other organizations. As early as 1872, Dr. 
Vincent says ^® that in the Northwestern Female 
College,- Evanston, 111.; the Cincinnati Wesleyan 
Female College ; the Baldwin University, in Ohio ; 
Cornell College, Iowa; Dickinson College, Penn., 
and in other institutions of learning, regular Sun- 
day-school normal classes had been started. 
Nevertheless, the work has not spread widely 
among secular institutions. On the other hand, 

"Junior Department of the Chautauqua Normal Un- 
ion (leaflet), Jesse L. Hurlbut (?), n. d. 

" Sunday-School Institutes and Normal Classes, J. H, 
Vincent, 1872, p. 135. 



112 Sunday-School Movements 

many training schools for Christian workers are 
giving considerable attention to Sunday-school 
teaching. The New York Training School for 
Deaconesses, in connection with the Episcopal 
Church, gives not only excellent Bible work, 
but careful and thoroughly pedagogical personal 
training in the Art of Teaching. The Moody In- 
stitute in Chicago, and the Bible Normal College 
in Springfield, Mass., give so much attention to 
Sunday-school work that they are sometimes 
called training schools for Sunday-school workers. 
Apart from this movement, yet of the greatest 
possible service to it as well as to the Christian 
world in general, is the present movement, intro- 
ducing into our colleges and academies courses of 
Bible study, conducted by specialists, and com- 
manding the same earnest application and high 
respect that is given to the most modern subjects. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CHURCH AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK 

Although it became necessary to form great 
unions and associations which undertake much of 
the Sunday-school work in America, and solve 
many of the perplexing problems that develop, the 
Church has not forgotten its duty toward the 
young. These organizations have been the serv- 
ants, not the supplanters of the Church in this 
matter. For the sake of convenience and to keep 
near the sources of information, it seems well to 
discuss the work of the Church under denomina- 
tional sub-heads, but our object is not a compari- 
son of the denominations. Indeed especial care 
must be taken with regard to making such com- 
parisons in this connection, for whole branches of 
Church work which affect the Sunday-school must 
be left undescribed. In the case of the Mora- 
vians, for instance, there seem to be no distin- 
guishing features of Sunday-school work import- 
ant enough for us to note, and yet during the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was 
probably no body of Christians that gave as much 
attention to Bible schools and early Church train- 
ing as they. If the question of religious teaching 
in the home and in the week-day school was to 

"3 



114 Sunday-School Movements 

be included, certainly the denomination which 
Comenius loved and labored for could not be so 
lightly passed by. 

It must be understood, then, that our point of 
view is both national and limited. Statistics are 
not of much value here^ and there will be no at- 
tempt even to mention all of the one hundred and 
forty-five denominations, with their subdivisions, 
of which the United States census gives a list. 

Looking back to colonial days, we found that 
the Puritans of New England had their ministers, 
once a week in some towns and once a month in 
others, gather the children and youth of the par- 
ishes at two o'clock on Saturday afternoons to 
catechise them. This system was a very thorough 
one, involving careful home instruction. It con- 
tinued in New England for more than a hundred 
years. Also some denominations, among which 
the Roman Catholic Church leads, hold that re- 
ligious instruction is an essential part of all educa- 
tion, and accordingly, before the rise of our great 
public school system, they had little need for the 
Sunday-school. The Episcopal denomination, 
however, is said to have always in this country 
followed the practice of giving religious instruc- 
tion to the children, on the Sabbath, openly, in 
the church.^ 

Baptist. The Congregational churches, both 
Trinitarian and Unitarian, together with the great 

^ Historic View of Sabbath- Schools, Congregational 
Quarterly, vol. VII, p. 20, E. H. Byington. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 115 

denomination of Baptists, represent intense inde- 
pendency. The churches of these denominations 
are not bound together by the recognized author- 
ity of ecclesiastical bodies. They may form 
groups by habit of association, and they may in a 
general way hold to more or less distinguishing 
doctrines, yet they lack that denominational unity 
and exclusiveness which would lead them as de- 
nominations to make conspicuous advances in Sun- 
day-school work. Owing to this lack of strong 
central organization, there is among the Baptists 
an increase of local efforts. The size of the de- 
nomination makes some of these local bodies equal 
if not superior, to the numerical strength of some 
other entire denominations. The Massachusetts 
Baptist Sunday-School Association,^ organized in 
1885, and incorporated in 1892, for example, is 
no small, inactive affair. Moreover, like the 
Methodists, the Baptists have been prominent in 
undenominational lines, especially in the great 
" International Lesson Movement." 

Although the Baptists have no national Sunday- 
school union or association, they have two bodies 
which attend to Sunday-school interests. In Feb- 
ruary, 1824,^ Noah Davis, a zealous young min- 
ister, addressed a communication to J. D. Knowles, 
then editor of " The Columbia Star," which led 

■ " Massachusetts Baptist Anniversaries," annual re- 
ports. 

•American Church History, vol. II (Baptists), by A, 
H. Newman, 1894, p. 426. 



Ii6 Sunday-School Movements 

to the calling of a meeting and the organization 
of the Baptist General Tract Society, with its 
headquarters at Washington. This became one 
of the most important and successful of the de- 
nominational enterprises. The receipts, which 
were for the first year, $373.80, amounted to 
$20,803.78, for the year ending in April, 1845. 
As early as 1826, owing to great inconveniences 
and loss from being at a distance from a publish- 
ing and distributing center, the Society removed 
its headquarters to Philadelphia. In 1840 a re- 
vised constitution was adopted, and the name of 
the Society changed to the American Baptist Pub- 
lication Society. Sunday-school work is distinctly 
recognized in the new constitution, and has, since 
1840, been pushed with great vigor. The Society 
is said to have been the first in America to engage 
in colportage. Its missionary department has sent 
colporteurs the length and breadth of the land dis- 
tributing literature, preaching in destitute places, 
and establishing Sunday-schools. Its publication 
department issues a number of Sunday-school pe- 
riodicals. The International lessons are used al- 
most exclusively, though the Society publishes a 
primary course entitled * " Two Years With 
Jesus." 

In 1 89 1 the Convention appointed a Sunday- 
school Board, whose chief function is to supply 
periodicals, song-books, Bibles, Testaments, cards, 

* " Two Years With Jesus,"' by Miss Juliet E. Dimock, 
teachers' edition and scholars' edition. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 117 

maps, and other requisites for Sunday-schools. 
The Board has its headquarters at Nashville. 

Before leaving the Baptists, it will be interest- 
ing to note a change which, though hardly a de- 
nominational movement, was instigated by a 
Baptist. Henry J. Howland " is entitled to the 
distinction of having originated the first Infant 
Sunday-school, so far as is known, ^ in this coun- 
try or any other." In 1829, when only an appren- 
tice boy nineteen years of age, at the suggestion 
of his sister, he obtained leave of absence to in- 
vestigate a certain school for the care of young 
children whose parents were obliged to be away 
from home at their work. He saw and heard 
enough to satisfy himself that the religious part 
of the exercises there could be usefully adapted 
for a number of small children who frequented 
the Sunday-school of the First Baptist Church of 
Boston, but who had no place in any of the classes. 
He explained the work at a meeting of the Sun- 
day-school teachers, proposing that an infant class 
be formed, and suggesting that one of the lady 
teachers should take charge. This resulted in the 
formation of such a class with young Mr. How- 
land as teacher. Besides the teaching and singing 
of hymns, he prepared Bible pictures to interest 
the children, and worked out the lessons on the 
catechetical plan, using the Bible for his answers, 
and instilling into the minds of the children the 

'"The Watchman," May 6, 1897 (vol. 78, No. 18), p. 
20. 



ii8 Sunday-School Movements 

Scripture language. He published the first book 
of lessons for the primary department. His heart 
was in the work and his school was a great suc- 
cess. Till the year of his death, 1897, he was an 
active and prominent Sunday-school worker. 

Congregational. The Congregational (Trini- 
tarian) Church, like the Unitarian, has a distinct 
Sunday-school organization of considerable na- 
tional importance. This Congregational Sunday- 
School and Publishing Society, is the result of the 
combination of two independent movements. In 
May, 1825, the Massachusetts Sabbath-School 
Union was organized, and was auxiliary to the 
American Sunday-School Union, formed the pre- 
ceding year. In 1826, forty of the fifty-five Sun- 
day-schools thus associated were Congregational, 
the rest Baptist. In 1832, it was thought best for 
the two denominations to divide, one-third of the 
assets going to the Baptists, and two-thirds to the 
Congregationalists.® The Massachusetts Sab- 
bath-School Society had its origin in this way 
and remained auxiliary to the American Sunday- 
School Union till 1839. It was incorporated in 
1840. 

During its first seven years it published 352 
books, of which 203 were for libraries, 17 were 
question books, and 3 were singing-books. The 
Wellspring was first issued in 1844. ^^ 1853, one 

' A Brief Historic Sketch of the Congregational Sun- 
day-School and Publishing Society, n. n., 1894. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 119 

of its books was called by the now popular name, 
" The Inductive Question Book.'' By 1868 it had 
issued 750 publications, of which 700 were for 
Sunday-school libraries. The Society also car- 
ried on missionary work, aiding both Presbyterian 
and Congregational Sunday-schools until the plan 
of union was given up. No special missionary 
agents were employed until 1853, when the West- 
ern Sabbath-School Agency was formed. Within 
six years eleven different missionaries were em- 
ployed in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. During the Civil 
War this work was broken up and the Society 
addressed its publications and its distributing 
work largely to the boys in camp and hospital, and 
to the '' contrabands " and freedmen. 

Meanwhile, the Congregational Board of Pub- 
lication, the second movement referred to above, 
had developed. On March 9, 1868, the Massachu- 
setts Sabbath- School Society, and the Congrega- 
tional Board of Publication, at the request of both 
organizations, were consolidated by act of Legis- 
lature into The Congregational Sabbath-School 
and Publishing Society. The object of the new 
Society was to " explain. . . . and support the 
Congregational faith and polity," and to promote 
Sabbath-school organization and education. In 
1870 the name was changed for convenience to 
The Congregational Publishing Society. Its busi- 
ness meanwhile rapidly increased. At this time 
a society called The Society for the Promotion of 



lao Sunday-School Movements 

Christian Knowledge disbanded and gave it 
$5,000, the annual income to be used in the dis- 
tribution of books. 

In accordance with the advice of the National 
Council, in 1874, on April i, 1876, the missionary 
work was transferred to the xAjnerican Home Mis- 
sionary Society. This change was against the 
judgment of the officers of both societies. In- 
terest in the Sunday-school work decreased; and 
the amount contributed for it diminished from 
$12,224, ii^ 1873, the year before the change was 
proposed, to $1,464, in 1879. ^^ May, 1882, this 
work was restored to the Publishing Society and 
the next year the name of the Society was changed 
to *' The Congregational Sunday-School and Pub- 
lishing Society," that it might correspond with 
the work which was again assumed. 

The organization has steadily grown till of re- 
cent years it has kept about thirty-five Sunday- 
school missionaries in the field, starting hundreds 
of new schools annually and holding hundreds of 
local institutes and conventions. Under the name 
of the ** Pilgrim Press " it issues literature that 
spreads far beyond the denominational lines. It 
presents two systems of lessons, the International 
and an inductive series on the Life of Christ and 
the History of Israel, so that schools or classes 
can take their choice. 

There is also an energetic Congregational Sun- 
day-School Superintendents' Union of Boston and 
Vicinity, with a membership of between one and 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 121 

two hundred. This was organized in November, 
1879, pursuant to a call which originated with sev- 
eral of the Congregational Delegates to a Sunday- 
school convention at Worcester a few days before. 
The Union meets once a month to discuss practi- 
cal subjects such as " How to Reach and Hold 
Young Men in our Sunday-schools," the '' Object 
and Work of the Training School for Christian 
Workers, in Springfield, " and " What may the 
Sabbath-school learn from the Public School ? " 
Sunday-school institutes and conventions have 
been held at its suggestion, and its influence has 
been felt by every "^ Congregational Sunday- 
school in Boston and vicinity. 

Episcopal. The Episcopal Church, as has been 
said above, has always given attention to the re- 
ligious instruction of children on Sunday. It has 
not succeeded, however, in maintaining a national 
Sunday-school union. One was organized in New 
York early m the century, but it never secured a 
strong support from the church in whose interests 
it was founded and whose name it bore. It acted 
for a time as a publication society and after some 
years of rather languid existence, its interests 
were sold to a private bookseller.^ 

On the other hand, the denomination has active 
local Sunday-school associations, of which the 

' Congregational Sun day- School Superintendents' Un- 
ion, n. n., 1896, p. 7. 

' Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, article Sunday- 
Schools, by D. P. K., vol. X, p. 25. 



122 Sunday-School Movements 

most influential is that of the Diocese of Pennsyl- 
vania, organized February 15, 1870. ^ The first 
meeting of this Association was called by a circu- 
lar issued to the Sunday-schools of Philadelphia 
by a committee of the Teachers Association of the 
Church of the Holy Apostles. For several years 
after its organization the Association held monthly 
meetings in the various city parishes. At these 
meetings a special topic was always presented by 
a leading clergyman or layman, and then briefly 
discussed by others. In a year or two this method 
was changed and a course of special monthly lec- 
tures was delivered by leading bishops and clergy- 
men. This course lasted about two years. The 
first Sunday-School Convention of the Association 
was held in the Church of the Epiphany in 1875, 
and was well attended. The first Sunday-School 
Institute was held in Grace Church on January 16, 
1883, and a Sunday-School Conference was held 
at the Church of the Epiphany in October, 1883, 
during the session of the General Convention 
which was then meeting in that city. This was 
very largely attended, and not less than twelve 
bishops made addresses. The American Church 
Sunday-School Institute was formed through the 
influence of this Association in October, 1884, 
and the weekly meetings for the study of the Sun- 
day-school lessons were begun in April, 1885. 
When the International Series of lessons began 

' The American Church Sunday- School Magazine, Feb., 
1895, p. 126. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 123 

to attract attention they were used in many Epis- 
copal schools, but they were so incongruous with 
the Church year that although several attempts 
were made to adapt them, it was found to be im- 
possible. A meeting was therefore held in Grace 
Church, New York, in 1874, at which the com- 
mittee known as the Joint Diocesan Committee was 
inaugurated. The members of this committee are 
appointed by the bishops of the several dioceses 
and include delegates representing the Brother- 
hood of St. Andrew and the American Church 
Sunday-School Institute. The regular meetings 
take place twice a year, each course of lessons be- 
ing for six months. The methods of work are 
practically the same as those of the International 
Lesson Committee. In 1897 an effort was made to 
decide on a course of study for five years, from 
1899 ^^ 1904. The object of the Committee is to 
put forth instruction in accordance with the prin- 
ciples of the Episcopal Church or the Church year ; 
to secure thorough familiarity with the Church 
catechism, a portion being set forth in each lesson ; 
to make everybody familiar with the leading doc- 
trines of Christianity as they are associated with 
the Church year ; to call frequent attention to the 
prayer book and its devotional uses ; and to bring 
before the minds of all the methods and obliga- 
tions of Christian work in its different branches, 
especially the missionary operations. The number 
of teachers and pupils using these lessons is over 
four hundred thousand in the United States and 



124 Sunday-School Movements 

Canada. ^° There are a number of pubHshers who 
employ editors to prepare the lesson papers, the 
two most popular of these courses being the \Vhit- 
taker and the Jacobs series. 

Other lesson series, as the International and 
the Bible Study Union, are used in many Episcopal 
Sunday-schools. In addition to these periodical 
papers, a single denominational publishing house 
in New York City can supply nearly a hundred 
different Episcopal manuals for Sunday-school 
instruction. These are mostly catechetical and 
many of them are in graded courses carefully pre- 
pared to lead the child through studies in the Bible, 
doctrines, and Church histor}\ 

Church music and church forms of worship are 
usually used in the Sunday-schools, and a special 
church service for children, in tone with the older 
services, is a regular appointment in many parishes. 

Conferences, conventions and institutes are be- 
coming more frequent and more serious in this de- 
nomination, and great effort is being made, with 
the aid of leading scholars in the philosophy and 
art of education, to solve the pressing problem of 
the Church's duty in the matter of national re- 
ligious training. 

Friend. Prominent in the history of Pennsyl- 
vania are *the Friends and their First-day schools, 
often called by them Bible or Scripture-schools. 

^° Dictation from a member of the committee (Dr. 
Shinn). 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 125 

They formed a Bible Society in Philadelphia in 
1830 ^^ About the same time, Hannah C. Black- 
house, of England, visited America in company 
with her husband, Jonathan Blackhouse, who was 
a minister. She found to her sorrow, much neg- 
lect of the Bible among American Friends, and 
established the first Bible schools among them. 
The movement was not rapid at first, but for many 
years now such schools have been almost universal 
in the orthodox branch of the Society. Most of 
the schools use the International Lessons, and all 
of the *' Yearly Meetings " except one have stand- 
ing committees whose duty it is to encourage and 
help the schools in the various localities. The 
minutes of a recent Iowa " Yearly Meeting '' have 
a remarkable record in the relatively large num- 
bers in Bible-schools, and in the large proportion 
of families that have some defined religious home 
training. 

The Hicksite body of Friends have flourishing 
First-day schools, some of which have adopted the 
International Lessons. Others use a series of les- 
sons selected and prepared by a Central Committee 
of their own body. These schools are not all con- 
fined to Bible lessons, ^^ but deal sometimes with 
ethical or humanitarian subjects. For instance, 

"American Church History, vol. XII, Thomas & 
Thomas, p. 281. 

" Sunday- Schools, United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion, Report of Commissioner of Education for 1896-97, 
p. 389. 



126 Sunday-School Movements 

one book which they use is " American Charities : 
A Study in Philanthropy and Economics," by 
Amos G. Warner. Also a '' Book of Devotional 
Poems," and " Selections from Whittier's Poems." 
are considerably used. The Hicksites tend to 
make much of literature, and in some places, 
especially in New York, they circulate traveling 
libraries among the country schools. 

Hebrew. The Hebrew Sunday-schools are. in 
general, of two kinds, Orthodox and Reformed. 
The Orthodox differ very little from schools in 
vogue before Christ. ^^ The Reformed vary, and 
it is not eas}' to make general statements regard- 
ing them. Each congregation is a voluntary as- 
sociation governed by its own rules and responsi- 
ble to no other association, except through its own 
pledges.^* 

In 1872 the Jews at Cincinnati made an effort 
to form a union of congregations, ** the object of 
which should be, — First, to establish a Jewish 
theological facult}-; second, to furnish proper 
books for our Sabbath schools ; third, to adopt a 
code of laws defining Judaism. " Out of this 
movement grew the Union of American Hebrew 
Congregations : the Hebrew Union College in Cin- 
cinnati ; and the Hebrew Sabbath-School Union. 
To make the Sabbath-school work more efficient, 

" Sunday-Sch(X)l Work, Ellis, Pedagogical Seminary, 
June, 1896, p. 393. 

^* Sunday-Schools, United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion, 1896-97, p. 405. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work lay 

prizes were offered for the best biblical history, 
the best post-biblical history, and the best cate- 
chism. In 1878 a prize was offered for the best 
hymn-book for Sabbath-schools. 

The Hebrew Sabbath-School Union, formed in 
1886 by a Sabbath-school convention in Cincin- 
nati, adopted a constitution which included the 
following from article VII, section i : The execu- 
tive committee shall prepare plans to carry into 
effect the unification of the work of the Hebrew 
Sabbath-schools as specified in the following sec- 
tions: (a) Instruction in the principles, doctrines, 
and precepts of Judaism, (b) Instruction in the 
reading of the Bible in the vernacular, (c) In- 
struction in the Hebrew language at least to the 
extent of understanding the Hebrew prayers and 
appropriate portions of the Bible, (d) Instruc- 
tion in Jewish history covering the biblical and 
post-biblical periods, (e) Instruction in music, 
with a view to prepare children to participate in 
the service. Section 2. In addition to the fore- 
going, which shall constitute a six years' course, 
including a one year's course for confirmation, the 
executive committee shall also provide for a two 
years' course of instruction for a post-confirmation 
class and a complete course of study for normal 
classes. 

Most Hebrew Sabbath-schools have sessions on 
Sunday morning from nine o'clock to eleven or 
half-past eleven. Some have an additional ses- 
sion on Saturday from nine to ten a. m. The rabbi 



128 Sunday-School Movements 

is the superintendent, or where there is no rabbi, 
a layman has charge of the school. A considera- 
ble proportion of the teachers are paid. 

Probably the best Hebrew Sunday-school in 
America is that at the Temple Emanuel, on Fifth 
Avenue, New York, described by Mr. ElHs. The 
school meets every Sunday morning, but follows 
completely the principles and methods of the public 
schools. Children must obtain permission from 
the educational committee of the church in order 
to enter the school. After the opening exercises 
of devotion, the school divides into five grades, 
each grade going into an entirely separate room, 
and each studying one of the five grades of Katz- 
enberg's Biblical History. There is also oppor- 
tunity to study a post-biblical history, by Hecht. 

Latter-Day Saint. Besides those branches of the 
Church which trace their ancestry back across the 
Atlantic, there is, in the western part of our land 
a younger, yet large and rapidly growing body, — 
the Latter-Day Saints. Fifty years ago, the 
" Saints, " after being driven from their homes on 
the banks of the Mississippi, settled in Utah. Here 
in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, amidst ad- 
verse circumstances, Richard Ballantyne saw and 
felt the need of religious instruction for the young. 
Accordingly, in May, 1849, ^^ formed the purpose 
of starting a Sunday-school to train the youth in 
the principles of the Gospel and knowledge of the 
Mormon scriptures. By the second Sunday of the 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 129 

following December he had built a suitable house 
for the purpose, and he, with his wife and babe, 
and the members of the school were gathered 
there. The Sunday-school numbered about fifty 
pupils. They furnished their own books, and the 
lessons were from the New Testament, Book of 
Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. The study 
of the New Testament predominated. The school 
began at eight o'clock in the morning, and closed 
in time for those who wished to attend the general 
meeting of the *' Saints. " ^^ 

In succeeding years, others, inspired with an 
interest in the education of the children, became 
pioneers or leaders in Sunday-school work in other 
wards and setlements. On the fourth of Novem- 
ber, 1867, a meeting of those interested in the 
Sunday-schools of the *' Saints " was held at the 
Thirteenth Ward Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, 
for the purpose of organizing a Sunday-School 
Union. This was the first meeting held for that 
purpose. At an adjourned meeting on the eleventh 
of that month, the first steps were taken toward a 
permanent organization, and Elder George Q. 
Cannon was elected president, with a recording 
secretary and two corresponding secretaries. A 
committee of three was also appointed to examine 
and decide upon books suitable for use in the Sun- 
day-schools. 

It was not till 1872 that the Union assumed a 

"Juvenile Instructor, vol XXXIV, Nov. i, 1899, pp. 
667-674. 



130 Sunday-School Movements 

compact and definite shape. From that time the 
efforts and labors of the Union became more prac- 
tical. Monthly meetings of the teachers and su- 
perintendents were held in Salt Lake City with 
great regularity, and continued to grow in propor- 
tions and interest until they were among the most 
popular and most largely attended of any of the 
assemblies of the people of Zion. The Sunday- 
school books published by the Union are now 
widely used. They are carefully adapted to the 
various sub-divisions of the work. The Stake or- 
ganizations are one means by which the influence 
of the Union is extended. Stake Superintendents 
of Sunday-schools are now almost invariably ap- 
pointed when the organization of a stake is per- 
fected. In every stake of Zion there is a Stake 
Superintendent of Sunday-schools, subject to the 
President of the Stake, with assistant officers to 
look after and care for the Sunday-school interests 
of that stake. In 1884 the general monthly meet- 
ings were put in charge of the stake Sunday- 
school authorities and the general meetings of the 
Union were appointed to be held twice a year at 
the times of the General Conferences of the 
Church. 

In 1887 a new feature was introduced into the 
services of the Sunday-schools, by direction of the 
First Presidency of the Church, namely the ad- 
ministration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per. All children who are more than eight years 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 131 

of age, if baptized, or if *' willing and anxious to 
be baptized " are to partake. ^® 

Great care is given to the matter of music. The 
Deseret Sunday-School Musical Union, organized 
in 1875, was of short duration ; nevertheless, both 
individuals, and the Sunday- School Union, have 
accomplished much by their efforts to promote 
the musical interests of the Sunday-schools. 

It is also interesting to note that there are nearly 
forty per cent, more male teachers and officers in 
the Sunday-schools than female. Much is done to 
direct and help the work of the teachers, and there 
are even Normal Sunday-school training classes 
in the academy at Provo. ^^ 

Some of the principal events ^^ of recent years 
have been : the holding of an annual Sunday-school 
Conference in each stake; the more thorough 
grading of the pupils into different departments ; 
the establishment of Nickel Day, on which all 
members of the Sunday-schools are invited to con- 
tribute at least one nickel to aid the Sunday-school 
cause ; the observance of Humane Day, on which 
special efforts are made to inculcate the principles 
and practice of kindness and mercy to animals; 
the preparation of lessons on the Bible, the Book 

" Proceedings of the First Sunday-School Convention 
of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, 

1899, p. 75. 

" Sunday- Schools, United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion, 1896-97, p. 416. 

"Juvenile Instructor, p. 671. 



132 Sunday-School Movements 

of Mormon and history of the Church, in leaflet 
form ; and the holding of a Sunday-school Conven- 
tion in November, 1898, which was well attended 
by delegates from the different schools and stakes 
extending from Canada to Mexico, and which 
proved to be a great success. 

Lutheran. The Lutherans have, during recent 
years, been turning their attention to Sunday- 
school questions. In 1830 a Sunday-school Union 
had been formed, of which Rev. C. F. Heyer was 
agent. During the first year he traveled nearly 
five thousand miles, preached in three hundred 
places, and established a large number of Sunday- 
schools. ^® From twelve to fifteen thousand Sun- 
day-school books and tracts were sold and dis- 
tributed. After this, however, no important steps 
seem to have been taken till the formation of a 
Council lesson system, four years ago. This is 
largely owing to the maintenance of parochial 
day-schools in which religious instruction is given. 

Both the Lutheran and the Protestant Episcopal 
Churches generally have catechetical classes, or 
some form of special instruction, for weeks and 
often months previous to Easter or the time of 
confirmation. Many Lutheran Sunday-schools 
hold two sessions. In New York, for instance, 
nearly, if not all of the schools, have a morning 
session before service and another in the afternoon. 

" Lutherans, by H. E. Jacobs ; American Church His- 
tory, vol. IV, p. 374. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 133 

Great stress is laid on the service and hymns of 
the church in the Sunday-school. Dr. Trabert 
voices the general opinion of his denomination 
when he says : " It is of the greatest importance 
that the children early learn to appreciate the 
church's magnificent treasures in her matchless 
hymns and unrivaled service. The Sunday-school 
must lead into the inner sanctuary by acquainting 
the children with and awakening a love for the 
full service of the sanctuary. To this end the 
matin and vesper services are peculiarly adapted. " 
The Lutheran Church Review of October, 1896, 
is almost wholly devoted to the subject of Sunday- 
schools. Conferences are being held on the sub- 
ject, and there are many signs of advanced thought 
and methods which would be suggestive to other 
denominations. 

Methodist. The most prominent people in Sun- 
day-school work are the Methodists. In the con- 
ference of 1779, five years before the organization 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the question 
was asked, *' What shall be done with the chil- 
dren ? " The answer was given, " Meet them once 
a fortnight, and examine the parents with regard 
to their conduct toward them. " In the first Dis- 
cipline, 1784, we find, " Where there are ten chil- 
dren whose parents are in the society, meet them 
at least one hour every week.^® 

" Growth of the Sunday-School Idea in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, J. M. Freeman, Meth. Q. Rev., July, 
187 1, p. 400. 



134 Sunday-School Movements 

John Wesley, it is claimed,^^ instituted Sunday- 
schools as early as 1737, in Savannah, Georgia. 
However this may be, he no sooner heard of 
Robert Raikes' Sunday-schools than he approved 
of them. He published an account of them in the 
American Magazine for January, 1785, and ex- 
horted his Societies to imitate this laudable ex- 
ample. They took his advice.^^ Bishop Asbury, 
at that time " Superintendent of the Methodist 
Church in America," also encouraged and assisted 
the establishment of Sunday-schools. 

Unlike some other Sunday-schools of those 
times, the Methodist schools included the three 
important ideas of gratuitous instruction, religious 
instruction, and books " to teach learning and 
piety," which ideas were, in 1790, officially in- 
corporated in the Discipline. Two kinds of Sun- 
day-schools were organized by the early Metho- 
dists. Both are frequently referred to in the 
Discipline. First, there were classes of one hour 
a week for children whose parents were able to 
teach them. Especial directions were given by 
the Conference of 1787 for the formation of such 
classes, and the children were to " graduate into 
the Church. " Second, the question was asked in 
1790, " What can be done in order to instruct poor 

" The Rise and Progress of Sunday- Schools, John 
Carroll Power, 1863, p. 22. 

" Annual Report of the Sunday-School Union of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, 185 1, p. 93. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 135 

children, white and black, to read ? " The answer 
was given, " Let us labor, as the heart and soul of 
one man, to establish Sunday-schools in or near 
the place of public worship " which shall give in- 
struction " from six o'clock in the morning till ten, 
and from two o'clock in the afternoon till six, " 
and such schools were established. 

From this time the Sunday-school idea grew 
slowly and steadily. In 1824 the General Confer- 
ence passed three resolutions on Sunday-schools. 
It was made ** the duty of each traveling preacher 
in our connection to encourage the establishment 
of Sunday-schools " ; arrangements were made for 
the compilation of a catechism for Sunday-school 
children ; and the book agents were instructed " to 
provide and keep on hand a good assortment of 
books suitable for the use of Sunday-schools. " 

On April second, 1827, the Sunday-School 
Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church was 
organized in New York City, this location being 
chosen because of ** the facilities afforded by our 
Book Concern for printing and circulating books. " 
The objects of the Union were " to promote the 
formation, and to concentrate the efforts of Sab- 
bath-schools connected with the Congregations of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and all others 
that may become auxiliary ; to aid in the instruc- 
tion of the rising generation, particularly in the 
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and in the serv- 
ice and worship of God. This Society flourished 



136 Sunday-School Movements 

until 1833,-^ when it was merged with the Bible 
and Tract Society. The new organization was dis- 
solved after three years. In 1840 the Sunday- 
School Union was reorganized and it put forth 
new hfe which has not since languished. In 1872, 
however, a change was affected making the Board 
of Managers to be appointed by the Church 
through its representative body, the General Con- 
ference. This necessitated a new charter, and 
the objects of the Corporation were stated to be 
'' charitable and rehgious, designed to advance the 
interests and promote the cause of Sabbath-schools 
in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the United States and elsewhere. " 

The work of this large and progressive Society 
falls under three departments. The Department 
of Instruction prepares lesson books, papers and 
practical helps of various kinds for both scholars 
and teachers. It also has a well-defined system of 
Normal Instruction, comprising the use of text- 
books, prepared especially for the purpose, and the 
holding of Normal Classes, Institutes, Assemblies, 
and other meetings for recreation and instruction. 
The Department of Publication works in coopera- 
tion with the Book Concern. It both edits publica- 
tions connected with Sunday-school work and 
purchases supplies from the Book Concern for 
needy schools. The Department of Benevolence 
seeks to organize and sustain Sunday-schools in 

** The Sunday- School Union of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. J. -.1. Freeman, p. 3. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 137 

destitute places, both here and in foreign lands, 
and to furnish books and requisites for the schools 
when the people are unable to pay for them. The 
Union does a large and useful work among the 
colored people of the South, among the Indians, 
and especially among the immigrants, thousands 
and thousands of whom are gathered into its Sun- 
day-schools. It also has thousands of schools in 
foreign lands. 

The same year that the Union was reorganized, 
the General Conference ^* made it the duty of the 
Presiding Elder carefully to inquire at each quar- 
terly conference if the rules for the instruction of 
children had been faithfully observed. These rules 
were entirely remodeled and enlarged, covering 
more than two pages of the Discipline. Also the 
Preacher in charge was required " to visit the 
schools as often as practicable, to preach on the 
subject of Sunday-schools and religious instruc- 
tion in each congregation at least once in six 
months, " and to form Bible classes for the in- 
struction of older members. 

In 1852 male superintendents who were mem- 
bers of the Church, were admitted to the quarterly 
conferences, with the right to speak and vote on 
questions relating to the Sunday-schools. Four 
years later such superintendents were made full 
members of the quarterly conference, with the one 
proviso that the quarterly conference shall first ap- 

" Growth of the Sunday- School Idea in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, J. M. Freeman, M. Q. R., p. 404. 



138 Sunday-School Movements 

prove of the appointment of the superintendent to 
his office. 

In 1844, during the session of the General Con- 
ference, a Sunday-school convention had met 
which resulted in the creation of the Department 
of Publication, described above, with the Rev. 
Daniel P. Kidder as editor. As early as 1847 1-^^- 
Kidder urged the formation of Sunday-School 
Teachers' Institutes. In 1857 Rev. John H. Vin- 
cent, ^^ then pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Joliet, 111., organized what he called a 
" Normal Class " in his own church. In the Con- 
ference of i860, the matter was again urged, and 
the following year, in connection with the Galena 
District Convention, a constitution was adopted, 
and under the direction of Mr. Vincent an excel- 
lent Institute program was carried out. This, 
Dr. Vincent believes " to have been the first regu- 
larly organized and permanent Sunday-school 
Teachers' Institute in the country." ^^ Sub-dis- 
trict sessions were held in several places during 
the year, wuth good attendance and great enthusi- 
asm. Other institutes follow-ed in other places 
soon after. 

The Sunday-School Union organized, February 
8, 1867, a " Normal College " having for its 
object, " To elevate the standard of Sunday-school 

*" The Lesson System, Simeon Gilbert, 1879, p. 20. 
" Sunday-School Institutes and Normal Classes, by J. 
H. Vincent, 1872, p. 65. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 139 

management and teaching in the Church, to fur- 
nish faciHties for training teachers, and to unite 
all local Normal Classes and Institutes in a central 
organization. " The course is for three years, the 
classes being called, the Preparatory, the Second 
or Junior, and the Third or Senior. Certificates 
are given to those who complete the work of one 
or two years, and diplomas to those who complete 
the entire course. ^^ 

At the Anniversary of the Sunday-School Union 
held in Columbus, Ohio, October 1869, the Nor- 
mal Department opened its Biblical Museum. 

In 1866 the Rev. Dr. Wise, Corresponding Sec- 
retary of the Union, asked the Board of Managers 
for the appointment of a General Agent to travel 
throughout the country to hold institutes, and to 
further all the interests of the Society. The Board 
appointed Mr. Vincent, who fulfilled the duties of 
the office with such activity and success that when, 
in 1868 the General Council created the ** Depart- 
ment of Sunday-school Instruction " he was ap- 
pointed to its superintendency in connection with 
the Corresponding Secretaryship of the Union and 
the office of Editor of the " Sunday-School Jour- 
nal." It was in the discharge ^® of his duty as 
Corresponding Secretary of the Union that Mr. 

" Sunday-School Institutes and Normal Classes, p. 
140. 

"American Church History, vol. V, J. M. Buckley, p. 
671. 



140 Sunday-School Movements 

Vincent, in 1874, founded the great educational 
system known as the Chautauqua Movement.* 

It is difficult to estimate the extent of the influ- 
ence of these great advances, especially as we lose 
the perspective in drawing nearer the present. 
Two more points, however, deserve at least to be 
mentioned. One is the Methodist kindergarten of 
the Church, which has for its purpose " to intro- 
duce the principles of the kindergarten into the 
primary department of the Sunday-school ; also 
to recommend that there be five sessions for this 
department during the week in addition to the 
one on Sunday. " The other is the Home Depart- 
ment of the Sunday-School Union, on the same 
plan as other home departments, and numbering, 
in 1897, when it was first recognized in the Sun- 
day-school system of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, more than seventy-seven thousand mem- 
bers. 

Presbyterian. In Sunday-school work the Pres- 
byterians have done perhaps more as individuals 
than as a branch of the Church, but it is as the 
latter that we must here consider them. 

In colonial days Presbyterian ministers were ex- 
pected to meet and catechise the children of their 
charges every week on Wednesday or on Sunday, 
with the help of some of the elders, or, if she were 
a notable woman, of the pastor's wife. The West- 

* For fuller account of Institutes and the Chautauqua 
Movement, see chapter on the same. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 141 

minster Shorter Catechism was taught in the Pres- 
byterian day-schools, especially in Pennsylvania. 
If a child of a Lutheran or Methodist family was 
in the school, he went through the whole curricu- 
lum, and his parents were glad to have it so.^* 
After mastering the headings in the spelling-book 
and some primer, the only other reading book was 
the Bible. The New Testament was read by the 
junior class, and the Old Testament by the seniors. 
With the introduction of Sunday-schools at the 
beginning of the century, this work declined and 
the Presbyterians gave large support ^^ to the ex- 
tension of the Sunday-school system. The Board 
of Publication also changed after a while from 
employing agents merely to carry on the sale of its 
books, to directing its agents to seek to establish 
Sunday-schools in neglected districts. For this 
reason in 1887 the General Assembly enlarged the 
title of the Board to include this work, and ap- 
pointed a secretary to take charge of it. It also 
has placed the statistics of Sunday-school mem- 
bership and contributions on the same footing as 
those of the congregations. ^^ 

There is no Presbyterian Sunday-School Union. 
The Cumberland Presbyterians issue, through 
their Board of Publication, the usual Sunday- 

^ United Presbyteria Church of North America, by 
Scouller, American Church History, vol. XI, p. 240, 

^ Presbyterians, by Thompson, American Church His- 
tory, vol. VI, p. 131. 

" Presbyterians, by Thompson, p. 200. 



14-1 Sunday-School Movements 

school literature. This Board was organized in 
1867 and located at Nashville. The Southern 
Presbyterians have laid upon their Committee of 
Publication the general oversight of all the Sun- 
day-school interests and the advancernent of the 
work in all practicable ways. 

Among all branches of Presbyterians the Inter- 
national Lessons and the Westminster Catechisms 
are widely used, the former being presented in a 
variety of quarterlies and helps. In the line of 
music there is little that the Presbyterians have 

not attempted, either as to instruments or hymn- 
books. 

Reformed. The Reformed Church is Calvinistic 
like the Presbyterian. It uses chiefly the Interna- 
tional Lessons, as issued by the German Reformed 
Church in the Heidelberg series, and the Heidel- 
berg Catechism. The Sunday-School Board of 
the Reformed Church in the United States, some 
times called the German Reformed Church, was 
first incorporated in 1897, though it had carried on 
an active work for years. In 1898 the Board of 
Publication of the Reformed Church in America, 
colloquially called Dutch Reformed, made a con- 
tract with the above Board of the German Re- 
formed Church, ^^ according to which the Dutch 
Board has an editorial representative on the Ger- 
man Board and receives its own imprint on the 
publications, some slight changes being made. 

** Triennial Report of the Sunday- School Board of the 
Reformed Church in the United States, 1899, p. 24. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 143 

From the first, a marked characteristic of the 
Reformed Dutch Church, and perhaps hardly less 
of the entire Reformed Church, has been her care 
for the instruction of the young. Christian nur- 
ture was regarded as the chief means of perpet- 
uating the Church. Christian parents were ex- 
pected to present their children for baptism; to 
train them for God, and to expect covenanted 
grace for them, so that at a suitable age they 
would be led to make a sincere profession of their 
faith in Christ.^^ The Synod of Dort said much 
on this subject. It was required of every minister 
that the sermon on Sunday afternoon should be 
explanatory of one of the '' Lord's Days " of the 
Heidelberg Catechism, so that the whole catechism 
might be expounded in the course of the year. 
The ministers are still required by the Constitu- 
tion and by their calls to do this work, but are al- 
lowed four years in which to cover the catechism. 

In 1839, the Board of Sabbath-School Union 
was formed, the object of which was to increase 
interest in the Sunday-schools and to secure, as far 
as possible, the teaching of the catechisms of tjie 
Church in them. The power of. the Board was ad- 
visory, though it also did some publishing, estab- 
lished new schools, and aided and encouraged 
feeble ones. It was abolished by the General 
Synod in 1862. 

Recently, in all departments of the Reformed 

"The Reformed Church in America, 4th edit., 1889, 
by David D. Demarest, p. 156. 



144 Sunday-School Movements 

Church, there has been a tendency toward more 
complete organization. Sunday-schools have re- 
ceived much attention. In the German Reformed 
Church a general secretary has been appointed to 
direct this important interest. ^* In the Dutch 
Reformed Church, the Sunday-school Committee 
reported in 1899 that " with the exception of the 
Classis of Raritan all the classes of the Church 
have appointed permanent Sunday-school Com- 
mittees, and through these the Sunday-school work 
has a care and oversight such as it never had be- 
fore. The vast responsibility of the work is urged 
upon pastors, superintendents and teachers, and 
the study of methods of work is earnestly com- 
mended. " 

Normal classes are formed in an increasingf 
number of the schools. Young people's work, 
especially in a missionary line, is prominent in 
the Sunday-schools and is considered to have edu- 
cational results. 

Roman Catholic. Since the Roman Catholic 
Church insists upon daily religious instruction, 
the Sunday-school has not been so prominent in 
that Church as a dependence upon it for religious 
teaching would make it. Within recent years the 
number of children who attend public schools, and 
the conditions regarding these schools, have ap- 
parently prompted greater attention to Sunday- 

»* Reformed Church, German, by Dubbs, American 
Church History, vol. VIII, p. 420. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 145 

schools. They have now some of the best attended 
and most carefully organized Sunday-schools in 
America. 

The work is kept under ecclesiastical supervi- 
sion and direction. The Church has a number of 
brotherhoods and sisterhoods devoted to teaching, 
for which the members are carefully trained, and 
there are summer professional schools which even 
experienced teachers attend annually. Some priest, 
chosen for his fitness, has the responsible supervi- 
sion. The gradation in the schools is more or less 
formal, according to circumstances, and ranges 
from the youngest class in a catechism of elemen- 
tary faith and duty to adult classes with text-books 
in Bible or Church history. The celebration of 
the mass is in many instances the preparatory 
service for the Sunday-school, and often includes 
the exposition of the Scripture lesson for the day. 
Some churches have also Saturday morning 
classes for pupils of the public schools. ^^ 

In most Roman Catholic schools little is taught 
save a series of catechisms, containing the Church 
doctrines. Of these catechisms there is a great 
variety, and there are several authors whose works 
are used in the study of Bible and Church history. 
No national uniformity in lessons exists, though 
all the various catechisms contain about the same 
matter. A priest or publishing house prepares a 
catechism, obtains its approval by some bishop, 

" Sunday- Schools, United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion, 1896-97, PP- 413 and 353. 



146 Sunday-School Movements 

and any school may use it. A catechism was pre- 
pared and enjoined by order of the Third Plenary 
Council of Baltimore, in 1885, in liope of bring- 
ing about uniformity in this country, but it was 
not satisfactory from a pedagogical standpoint and 
therefore not universally used. 

The school of the Paulist Fathers, ^^ Fifty-ninth 
Street, New York^ represents probably the most 
advanced methods and ideas among the Roman 
Catholics, and is far superior to the average school. 
It meets at nine on Sunday morning with about 
eighteen hundred people from three to thirty 
years of age, of all social classes. The large as- 
sembly hall is hung with pictures and mottoes and 
furnished with images. Mass is said and the 
children use the '' Sunday-School Manual " pre- 
pared for them by the director, simplifying the 
whole, appending a collection of spirited hymns to 
be interjected, and adapting it to children. Then 
folding doors separate the departments and the 
regular lessons are taken up by the teachers. The 
smallest children are put through kindergarten 
movements, listen to legends and some Bible facts, 
and are taught to make the sign of the cross and 
say various short prayers of the Church, and to 
repeat the Apostles Creed. Above this there are 
five more grades each using catechetical instruc- 
tion of increasing fullness concerning the Chris- 
tian life and duties and the Roman Catholic doc- 

" Sunday- School Work, Pedagogical Seminary, June. 
1896, Ellis. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 147 

trine. This school meets on Wednesday as well 
as on Sunday. The parents are required by the 
laws of the church to teach the catechism to their 
children at home during the week. The school has 
a regular series of examinations, and a certificate 
of graduation is granted to those passing the first 
examination. It offers a gold medal for the best 
paper and makes full use of rewards and the 
stimulus of rivalry. The course is so arranged as 
to take advantage of the great incitement afforded 
by a sense of mastery of something. The direc- 
tors and teachers show earnestness, enthusiasm, 
personal interest and sympathy with the children 
and a pedagogical insight. They go from the 
known to the unknown. The service of mass with 
a decorated altar, the solemn music and the united 
singing, the robed priests and acolytes, are all 
most aptly chosen to appeal to the soul of the 
child and to create a sense of reverence. ^^ 

ITnitarian. The Unitarians were among the 
first to start a denominational Sunday-school 
Society. This was organized in Boston, April 18, 
1827, under the name of the Boston Sunday-School 
Society. Its members were pastors, teachers, and 
officers from the ten Unitarian Sunday-schools in 
the city.^^ The first Unitarian Sunday-school in 
Boston, formed in 1824, had met with strong dis- 
approval, lest the important work of the religious 

" Sixty Years of the Unitarian Sunday- School Soci- 
ety, 1887, by H. G. Spauldlng. 



148 Sunday-School Movements 

instruction of the young should be taken out of 
the mother's hand; but this opposition was soon 
proved a mistake. The Society met once in three 
months, with an annual meeting in December, and 
debated important questions. In the second year 
of its existence, an arrangement was made with 
the infant American Unitarian Association, 
whereby certain text-books should be published, 
bearing the imprint of the two Societies. It was 
not till 1884, however, that the first attempt was 
made to instruct young people by a manual of 
Unitarian belief. In 1831 the Society dropped the 
word " Boston " from its name. The influence 
of this society can be better appreciated by look- 
ing at the names of those who addressed its meet- 
ings, among which are found those of Horace 
Mann, Dr. Channing, and others of almost equal 
eminence. 

In 1852 an important forward step was taken by 
the publication of a series of eight graded manuals 
written by leading ministers. Two years later the 
Unitarian Sunday-School Society was reorgan- 
ized, and the same year a Sunday-school teachers' 
institute held, at which Edward H. Clarke, M. D., 
urged the consideration of the laws of the soul's 
growth, and earnestly advocated a graded system 
of studies. This institute, though perhaps less 
characteristic, permanent and widely influential, 
was seven years earlier than the famous Meth- 
odist institute of 1861. 

In 1866 the Ladies' Commission was formed as 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 149 

a volunteer auxiliary to the Society, its chief work 
being the preparation of carefully sifted lists of 
books suitable for Unitarian Sunday-school libra- 
ries. 

On the fifteenth of October, 1873, the Western 
Unitarian Sunday-School Society was organized 
at Chicago, and since then a number of Unitarian 
Societies and Unions have risen. It is interesting 
to note that the Unitarian Sunday-School Union 
of the Pacific Coast, organized November, 1891, 
pledges itself to work in cooperation with the 
*' Unitarian Sunday-School Society. " ^® 

For more than fifteen years the Unitarian Sun- 
day-School Society has been aiding feeble schools 
and giving special attention to practical helps for 
teachers. The first summer assembly held by the 
Society was in July, 1890. Beginning with 1892 
the Society issued annually a One-Topic Graded 
Course on such subjects as the Old Testament or 
Story of Israel, Great Thoughts of Israel, the Life 
of Jesus, Teachings of Jesus, and the Beginnings 
of Christianity. The Primary Grade papers of 
this series contain some of the best illustrations 
supplied for Sunday-school children. The Uni- 
tarians are among those who do not limit their 
work to the Bible. One of their most prized series 
is entitled " Noble Lives and Noble Deeds " and 
embraces a wide variety of subjects. It would be a 
lengthy task to describe the publications of each 

"Directors' Annual Report of the Unitarian Sunday- 
School Society, 1892, p. 20. 



150 Sunday-School Movements 

denomination, but it should be observed that the 
Unitarians rank among the foremost of those who, 
incited by a marked difference of belief, have at- 
tempted to supply their children and youth with 
helps to religious study. 

XTniversalist. The Rev. Richard Eddy claims 
great credit for the Universalists in the origin of 
the American Sunday-school. In 1790, the Phila- 
delphia Convention of Universalists adopted a 
regulation for the institution of church schools in 
which children should be instructed in the Bible. 
At this time Dr. Benjamin Rush was among the 
avowed Universalists in Philadelphia. As a result 
of conferences which he held with Bishop White 
of the Episcopal Church, and Matthew Cary of the 
Roman Catholic, they united with him ^^ in a call 
for a meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia for 
the purpose of taking into consideration the estab- 
lishment of Sunday-schools for that city. This re- 
sulted in the organization of the well-known 
" First-day or Sunday-School Society " of Phila- 
delphia, the earliest Sunday-School Society in this 
country. Also, in April, 1791, Oliver Wellington 
Lane, a school-teacher in Boston, and a deacon of 
the Universalist Church, opened a Sunday-school 
in his school-room. This was according to Raikes' 
plan, and there is little doubt that it was the first 

" The Universalist Origin of American Sunday- 
Schools, Rev. Richard Eddy, Univ. Q., Oct., 1882, p. 453. 



The Church and Sunday-School Work 151 

Sunday-school on that plan set up in New Eng- 
land. *« 

In many other ways the UniversaHsts have 
shown their care for children. Not believing in 
the baptism of children, they instituted a rite of 
Dedication for them. This was probably started 
as early as 1780 by the Rev. Mr. Murray. *^ On 
the second Sunday in June, 1856, C. H. Leonard, 
D. D., then pastor of the church at Chelsea, Mass., 
instituted " Children's Sunday, " a day for the 
special observance of this rite, and for services par- 
ticularly adapted to the capacity, needs and enjoy- 
ment of the children of the Sunday-schools. The 
service has been annually observed in that church 
ever since, and was soon taken up in other Uni- 
versalist churches. In 1867 the General Conven- 
tion held in Baltimore commended the observance 
to all. At the session held in Providence, in 1868, 
the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, 
That while it may be proper to dedicate children 
on any day of the year, uniformity of action is 
desirable in this as in all other matters, and we 
recommend that the second Sunday in June, of 
each year, be named and set apart as '' Children's 
Sunday. " At the session held in Gloucester, in 
1870, the following was adopted among the Laws 
of the Universalist Church : It shall be the duty 

*" American Church History, vol. X, The Universal- 
ists, R. Eddy, p. 483. 

** American Church History, vol. X, The IJniversal- 
ists, R. Eddy, p. 484. 



i^a Sunday-School Movements 

of every Parish to set apart at least one Sunday in 
each year to be denominated Children's Sunday — 
in all cases where practicable the second Sunday in 
June, or as near thereto as possible, and parents 
and guardians shall be encouraged and invited to 
bring their children to the altar on that day for 
baptism or dedication to the service of the Lord. 
" Children's Sunday " is now very generally ob- 
served, and has been so designated and used by 
other Protestant Churches, especially by the 
Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists, who find 
it a valuable means of connecting the children of 
the Sunday-school with the Church. 

The Universalists, besides using the unde- 
nominational lesson series, have their own Sun- 
day-school periodicals, catechisms and other les- 
son books. In many of the states they hold regular 
Sunday-school conventions, in some states they 
have local Sunday-school Unions, and even the 
Sunday-school institute is not untried by them. 

General. On the whole the denominations profit 
but little by each other's experiences. In most of 
the denominations each separate school lives its 
own life with only a chance knowledge of other 
schools, denominations, or Sunday-school organi- 
zations. Nevertheless, the Church militant has 
come to realize the importance of training her 
young soldiers, and in these days of rapid com- 
munication it cannot be long before the better 
methods spread. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BIBLE STUDY UNION 

Origfin. It is usual when ministers give Bible 
lectures, or even Bible lessons, for them to follow 
some plan of their own, thus giving life and per- 
sonality to the course. So the Rev. Erastus Blakes- 
lee prepared his own lessons when he undertook 
to lead a young people's week day Bible class in 
the church of which he was pastor in Spencer, 
Massachusetts. The work began in 1888 and re- 
sulted in the preparation of some lessons which 
proved eminently successful. Early in 1890 Mr. 
Blakeslee attempted to apply his methods to the 
International Sunday-School Lessons, publishing 
leaflets on them for the months of April and May. ^ 
But this combination was impossible. The reason 
can be easily seen by noting Mr. Blakeslee's funda- 
mental theories. 

The rundamental Thearies. He considers first 
that the aim of Sunday-schools should be to in- 
struct the children and youth of our congregations 
in the facts, teachings and practical truths of the 
Bible. Thus far the International Sunday-school 

* Report of Meeting for the Organization of Bible 
Study Union, pp. 5, 6. 

153 



154 Sunday-School Movements 

Lesson Committee might agree with him. His 
second theory is that a comprehensive general ac- 
quaintance with the Bible as a whole, especially 
in its relation to the person and work of Christ, 
should precede the minute and thorough study of 
its individual parts. Third, that after this general 
study has been completed, it should be followed by 
the most exhaustive possible study of individual 
books or subjects. Fourth, that as the doctrine of 
redemption is the principal theme in the Scrip- 
tures, the Bible should be studied first with refer- 
ence to this fact ; and therefore our Sunday-school 
study as a system should begin with the study of 
the Life of Christ, and this not from any one 
Gospel, but from them all and as a whole. This 
should be followed by a similarly comprehensive 
study of the results of His work, as given in the 
rest of the New Testament. Then should come 
the Old Testament with special reference to the 
origin and progress of the Messianic idea. Fifth, 
that this comprehensive study of the whole Bible 
should be carried through a graded series of les- 
sons which should present to each grade such facts 
and truths as are suited to it, so that the child 
should go through the Bible once in four or five 
years, each time in a different grade. Sixth, that 
these graded courses of study should be looked 
upon as a definite and characteristic portion of 
Sunday-school Bible study; that they should be 
so arranged that if begun in childhood they will 
be completed at maturity, or if taken up later, will 



The Bible Study Union 155 

be completed in from four to eight years ; and that 
their completion should mark the time of gradua- 
tion from the Sunday-school into the Bible class, 
properly so called. Seventh, that it should be al- 
ways kept in mind that these Comprehensive Out- 
line Studies are intended to provide a broad and 
firm foundation for subsequent minute and ex- 
haustive study. ^ 

Early Steps. It is clear that the graded school 
is essential to the carrying out of most of these 
ideas. This alone so conflicted with the principle 
of uniformity which underlies the International 
Lesson system as to make any combination im- 
possible. Accordingly, Mr. Blakeslee, not willing 
to withdraw from what seemed to him a much 
needed work, began the preparation of an inde- 
pendent course of lessons. In October, 1890, he 
published an abstract of a series of lessons on The 
Life of Christ, designed for treatment by his 
methods. The favor with which this outline was 
received led to the publication of lessons based 
upon it, in January, 1891. In July of the same 
year The Bible Study Publishing Company in Bos- 
ton began the issue of Sunday-school lessons,^ 
and the plan was started of forming a Union to 
prepare and introduce a system of graded Bible 
study. The first step was to issue a circular dated 

' An Advance Step in Sunday- School Bible Study, 
Oct., 1891. 
' Report of the Meeting for Organization, pp. 5, 6. 



156 Sunday-School Movements 

September 24, 1891, setting forth a basis of organi- 
zation. The names of a number of persons joining 
the Union on that basis were pubHshed in con- 
nection with the lessons. In 1892 a course of 
lessons on The ApostoHc Church was published. 

Organization. In April, 1892, a conference of 
certain gentlemen connected with the Union was 
held in Boston. This conference issued a minute 
(see appendix V), which was unanimously adopted 
and which was made the basis of agreement for 
the formation of The Bible Study Union. Noth- 
ing further, however, was done in the line of or- 
ganization till the fall of 1893 when a meeting of 
The Bible Study Union was held at the Collegiate 
Reformed (Dutch) Church, Fifth Avenue, comer 
Forty-eighth Street, New York City, on Novem- 
ber twenty-third, for the purpose of making a 
permanent organization.* The call to this meeting 
was signed by over four hundred persons, in- 
cluding such as Dr. George P. Fisher, Dr. Charles 
F. Thwing and Dr. William J. Tucker, who be- 
came the original members of the Union. At the 
meeting the constitution (see appendix VI) was 
formed and the officers elected, Rev. David H. 
Greer, D.D., rector of St. Bartholomew's Church, 
New York City, being made president. 

Business Methods. The methods of working in 
this Union have been largely the result of cir- 
cumstances. Two important standing committees 
exist — the Executive and the Lesson Committee. 

* Report of the Meeting for the Organization, pp. 3-7. 



The Bible Study Union 157 

The latter, besides seven elected members, has 
two '* office editors " from the Executive, a num- 
ber of " Special Editors " who do perhaps most 
of the course and lesson planning, and two ** De- 
nominational Editors " who are Episcopal min- 
isters and adapt a set of the lessons to the Epis- 
copal Church Year and other denominational re- 
quirements. This committee does not meet at 
appointed times, but on call ; and since most of the 
members are business men from different cities, it 
is called as seldom as possible. The leading mem- 
bers, however, meet frequently in New York. 
They then send accounts of their work to the other 
members whose advice is asked. This method 
is thought to give more time for developing plans. 

The Original Lesson System. The Lesson Com- 
mittee held its first meeting in Boston, February 
27, 1894.^ It was there decided that the system 
of study should be known as " The Bible Study 
Union Graded Lesson System, " or more briefly, 
" The Union Graded Lessons. " Since the out- 
line of courses then planned still underlies the 
more complicated recent developments, it will be 
well to consider it carefully. 

The system was divided into four series : First, 
for Children, second, Historical, third, Doctrinal, 
and fourth, Bible Class. Each of the first three of 
these series was again divided into three courses, 
each course covering one year. These courses 

" Statement of the Lesson Committee of The Bible 
Study Union, 1894, PP. i-4- 



158 Sunday-School Movements 

were to be published in different grades. The 
courses in the Children's Series were to be in 
two grades: Primary Leaflets with Kindergarten 
Cards for the youngest children, and a simple 
Quarterly for those who are beginning to read and 
write. The courses in the Historical series were 
also to be in two grades: Intermediate, for the 
younger classes in the main body of the Sunday- 
school, and Progressive for those wHo are older. 
The courses in the Doctrinal Series were to be in 
the Senior grade, for adults. The Bible Class 
Series has an indefinite number of courses all of 
a Bible Class grade. 

The subjects of the courses were to be as fol- 
lows: In the Children's Series, one course on the 
Gospels, one on the rest of the New Testament, 
and one on the Old Testament; treated to give 
the most important stories, facts and truths of the 
Bible. In the Historical Series, one on the Gos- 
pels, one on the Apostolic Church, and one on the 
Old Testament; treated to give a comprehensive 
and connected view in outline of the historical ma- 
terial of the Bible. In the Doctrinal Series, one 
on the Teachings of Our Lord, one on the Teach- 
ings of the Apostles, and one on the Teachings of 
the Old Testament, especially on Messianic proph- 
ecy. In the Bible Class Series, the courses would 
be on the Gospels, the Epistles, the Prophets, other 
books of Scripture, Doctrines and Duties, Biblical 
Theology, the Ethics of the Bible, the Poetry, of the 
Bible, and other such subjects. 



The Bible Study Union 159 

The idea seems to have been that a child enter- 
ing the kindergarten or infant class at the age of 
five would spend about six years in the Child's 
department^ taking all three courses first in the 
lowest grade and then again in the next grade. 
This would bring him to the Historical Series at 
about eleven or twelve years of age. In the same 
way he would spend about six years in this depart- 
ment, which would form the main body of the 
Sunday-school ; and enter the Senior grade for the 
Doctrinal Series at about seventeen or eighteen. 
This Series being in only one grade, he would 
reach the Bible class at twenty or twenty-one. It 
will be seen that not only is adaptation to each 
stage of the child's development possible by this 
system, but that any school using these courses 
can be studying in all its departments a given por- 
tion of Scripture, as, for instance the Gospels ; but 
each department would be studying^ according to 
its own ability and needs. 

Other courses were to be issued as might from 
time to time seem best. All the courses are to 
be revised as often as may be necessary to embody 
in them the results of scholarship and experience, 
so that they may become text-books for permanent 
use. Like ordinary school books, the lessons are 
undated; though, like most Sunday-school books, 
they may be had in the form of small periodicals. 
Each course is to be accompanied by " The Bible 
Study Manual, " which will give such help as 
teachers need. 



i6o Sunday-School Movements 

The Present Lesson System. Since the original 
outline of courses was planned, in 1894, a number 
of changes have taken place. Without tracing the 
development, a brief description of the present 
system may serve to show the results of the last 
six years' growth. The term " series " is now 
applied not to the four largest divisions of grad- 
ing, but to subject-matter. ^ There are six series, 
three biographical, namely, The Life of Christ 
series, the Peter, Paul and John series, and the 
Great Men of Israel series ; and three historical, 
namely, the Gospel History series, the History of 
the Apostolic Church series, and the Outline of 
Old Testament History series. Each of these 
series is in seven grades, with Helper and Manual 
for Teachers. A child in Sunday-school is not 
expected to take all the six series of a grade before 
passing to the next grade. The course of a single 
child might be something as follows : 



Primary 
Depart- 
ment. 



The 
Main 
School. 



And so 



First Grade 
Primary cards 



Second Grade 

Primary 

Monthly 



Third Grade 

Child's 

Monthly 



Fourth Grade 
Junior Quar- 
terly 



Fifth Grade 

Intermediate 

Quarterly 



on with the oth 



Gospel Stories j 

Stories about Apostles i Biographical 

■ ■■ ... ■ ■ ■ ... £ C!^-W|/VQ 

Old Testament Heroes ) 
A Year with Jesus 



A Year with the Apos 

ties , 

Old Testament Stories ] 



(.Historical 
( Series. 



Life of Christ 
Three Great Apostles 
Great Men of Israel 

Gospel History , ^, , ^ 

History Apostolic \ Historical 

Church f Series. 

Old Testament History J s 



f Biographical 
t Series, g 



er Quarterlies. 



•Graded Lessons, 1899, p. 4 (no name). 



The Bible Study Union i6i 

This plan would keep a child six years in the 
Primary Department: — two years in the first 
grade or infant class, two years in the second 
grade, and two in the third grade. Then he would 
pass to the Main School, and so on. 

Other Characteristics. Perhaps the most laud- 
able characteristic of this Union is its success in 
obtaining and embodying the results of the latest 
and best scholarship in its line. An illustration 
of this was the revision in 1893 ^ of the lessons on 
the Life of Christ, in order to base them upon more 
recent investigation. ® An Analytical Outline of 
the Life of Christ ® was carefully prepared by 
William Arnold Stevens, D. D., Professor of New 
Testament Interpretation in the Rochester The- 
ological Seminary, and Ernest De Witt Burton, 
Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the 
University of Chicago. This outline is in reality 
an analysis of the steps of progress in the Life of 
Christ, and is divided into appropriate parts, 
chapters and sections. It includes the entire ma- 
terial of the Four Gospels. Upon this work are 
based all the Gospel courses of the Bible Study 
Union, from those suited to the infant class to 
those worthy of Bible classes and college students. 

' The Gospel History of Jesus Christ, Progressive 
Grade, Preface. 

' The Bible Study Manual, Life of Christ Series, Ap- 
pendix, p. i. Also Adaptation versus Uniformity, p. 14. 

*An Outline Handbook of the Life of Christ, Stevens 
& Burton, Second Edition, Revised, pp. 6-18. 



1 62 Sunday-School Movements 

And not only is the subject matter carefully 
treated but child study is also considered. Miss 
Lucy Wheelock, instructor in Kindergarten 
Methods, ChauncyHall School, Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, has prepared most interesting sets of 
Bible Stories ^^ adapted especially for the little 
ones and illustrated with sewing or drawing cards 
according to the grade. 

The sewing card is the infant class form of 
home work, and the home work feature runs 
through all the grades. One means of securing 
work is the fact that the lesson does not consist of 
a dozen or so verses that may be skimmed over 
after reaching school. The lesson is a subject, 
requiring each student, above the grades where 
the teacher tells the story, to turn to the different 
parts of the Bible where the given event or truth 
may be treated. The lesson is built up by each 
member of the class, and home written work 
shows the development of the topic. 

One other trait seems especially worthy of men- 
tion, namely, the attitudes towards different re- 
ligious denominations. The Union is for Bible 
study. How should it treat denominational 
peculiarities? Any one set of lessons appeals as 
little to people of different beliefs as to people of 
different ages. The Union, true to its theory of 
adaptation, agrees to differ, and welcomes the edit- 

**> See Children's Courses of The Bible Study Union, 
as *' A Year with Jesus Primary Lessons and Cards, 
Primary Monthly, Child's Quarterly. 



The Bible Study Union 163 

ing of its series with denominational modifications. 
It publishes already not only special Christmas, 
Easter, Missionary, and Temperance Lessons, 
and examination papers, but even a Protestant 
Epicopal Church Edition of its different courses, 
prepared and edited by the Rev. D. H. Greer and 
the Rev. Geo. H. McGrew. Perhaps it is largely 
due to this breadth of feeHng that the lessons so 
rapidly spread among the different denominations 
and out to the missionary fields of Turkey, Persia, 
India, Burma, China, Japan and Africa. 



CHAPTER VIII 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Sunday-school Books and Periodicals. Beside 

the great national Sunday-school movements al- 
ready described, there have been many smaller, 
and many collateral movements. The smaller ones 
have been put aside as too numerous to be dis- 
cussed here, though many of them are most ex- 
cellent. The collateral movements have been cut 
off somewhat arbitrarily. For instance, the sub- 
ject of Sunday-school libraries and Sunday-school 
periodicals has been hardly more than touched 
upon, and that only when the discussion of other 
subjects has made it seem necessary. Yet not only 
has the American Sunday-School Union done a 
great work in introducing and building up the 
Sunday-school library, but other organizations and 
other forces have affected this movement. The 
subject could fill more than one volume. As early 
as 1850 nearly all the larger denominations had 
publishing houses and by 1869 thirty-six houses 
were engaged in publishing books for Sunday- 
schools, employing a capital of over five million 
dollars.^ In the early seventies a number of pub- 

* The Sunday- School Library, A. E. Dunning, 1883, 
pp. 19-27. 

164 



Miscellaneous 165 

lishers offered premiums, in some instances as high 
as $1,000, for the best manuscripts without regard 
to subject. Prizes were also offered for the best 
books on particular subjects. Under such condi- 
tions the writing of Sunday-school books soon be- 
came a profession, and great quantities of more or 
less profitable books for children were produced. 

Of recent years the condition of Sunday-school 
libraries has provoked considerable comment. 
Some Sunday-schools admit all kinds of secular 
literature, with more or less effort to have it 
" standard," while others admit only Bible helps. 
Comparatively few Sunday-schools now have 
libraries composed of religious stories written for 
the purpose. In fact the object of the Sunday- 
school library seems to have changed, if indeed 
Sunday-school workers are at all clear or agreed 
as to what the object is. 

Besides Sunday-school library books, there are 
innumerable Sunday-school periodicals, sometimes 
subscribed to in large numbers by entire schools, 
and sometime singly by individuals or families. 
These are usually especially attractive to children 
on account of their illustrations. Among those 
of interest to older Sunday-school workers, the 
Sunday-School Times and the International 
Evangel lead. Nearly every State in the Union 
has a State Sunday-school paper devoted exclu- 
sively to Sunday-school work. In some cases 
these State papers are special editions of the 
Evangel. There are also a great variety of de- 



1 66 Sunday-School Movements 

nominational periodicals for children and young 
people. The United States Bureau of Education * 
mentions over seventy in its " partial list." In 
addition to all these there are the publications of 
the American Sunday-school Union, of smaller 
organizations, and of private parties. Sunday- 
school literature has unmistakably become a force 
whose moulding influence should not be left to 
chance. The subject deserves separate and careful 
investigation, and the serious attention of educa- 
tors. 

The International Bible Reading Association. 

Another line of work that is more or less con- 
nected with the Sunday-school, is home studying 
or reading of the Bible apart from the Sunday- 
school lesson. A number of organizations seek to 
encourage and direct such work. Of these the 
International Bible Reading Association is in 
closest touch with the Sunday-school. It was or- 
ganized in England in 1882, but has branches in 
every part of the world. ^ Its object is to promote 
the daily study of the Bible by Sunday-school 
teachers, scholars, and others, combining with 
such study, preparation for the International Sun- 
day-School Lesson. Each day's reading consists 
of about ten verses having some relation to the 
lesson for the following Sunday. Circular letters 

' Report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, 1896-97, p. 422. 
• The Study, April, 1885, p. 64. 



Miscellaneous 167 

containing hints on the daily readings are sent 
each quarter. 

The American Institute of Sacred Literature. 

The American Institute of Sacred Literature is 
not intended as a Sunday-school movement, 
though its Outline Club Course is used in some 
Sunday-school classes. The courses of the Insti- 
tute are not divided on the seven-day basis, but on 
the basis of months. The aim of the organization 
is to bring into closer cooperation those who de- 
sire to promote the study of the Bible from the 
historical standpoint and the study of other sacred 
literature as related to it; to induce properly 
qualified persons to undertake this work ; and to 
extend an acquaintance with right methods of 
Bible study and their results. The work of the 
Institute is controlled and directed by a body of 
representative biblical teachers called the Council 
of Seventy, of whom Dr. John Henry Barrows is 
President, and Dr. William R. Harper, Principal. 
The direct management is intrusted to a Senate 
composed of the officers of the Council. The work 
of the Council, or in other words of the Institute, 
may be described under five heads, as follows : i. 
Correspondence Courses in Hebrew, New Testa- 
ment Greek, and the English Bible. 2. Reading 
Courses, including (i) The Outline Bible Club 
Course for Christian Organizations, (2) The 
Bible Student's Reading Guild. 3. Summer 
Schools held independently or in connection with 
Institutes and Assemblies. 4. Lectures in Exten- 



1 68 Sunday-School Movements 

sion courses, at Colleges and Local " Institutes," 
at Conventions, and under independent auspices. 
5. Examinations (i) in Hebrew, New Testament 
Greek, and the English Bible, open to College Stu- 
dents, (2) upon the International Sunday-School 
Lessons, open to every one. 

The American Society of Religious Education. 

A third organization promoting Bible Study, is 
the American Society of Religious Education. 
This Society was started in Indiana, in 1889, but 
reorganized in 1894, and its headquarters removed 
to Washington. Its object is " to awaken in- 
creased interest in the subject of religious educa- 
tion ; to engage scholars in the study of man's 
spiritual nature ; to devise improved methods of 
Bible study and teaching for the home, the Sun- 
day-school, the public school, and the college ; to 
collect and preserve at the National Capitol, in- 
formation of all systems of religious instruction." 
The first * work undertaken was the training of 
Sunday-school teachers. For the purpose a two 
years' course of study was prepared, to be be- 
gun at any time and in any place, by individuals 
or classes. By the first of January, 1896, nearly 
ten thousand ^ teachers had pursued the course 
in whole or in part, and on that day the Sunday 
Teachers' Normal College was organized, adopt- 

* Journal of Religious Education, Dec, 1897, p. 10. 
Also Normal Lesson Manuals, etc. 

° American Society of Religious Education, Annual 
for 1896, p. 10. 



Miscellaneous 169 

ing the same course of study, but providing some 
new features. The Society has eight other depart- 
ments, among which are the Bible Readers' Union, 
Home Child Culture, Conventions, the Bible in 
College, and Sunday-School Extension. The af- 
fairs of the Society are managed by a board of 
twenty-one regents, all residents of Washington, 
assisted by councillors, or educators from the dif- 
ferent states. There is also a board of trustees 
to hold property and administer bequests. Al- 
though this work appears to have begun with the 
idea of training Sunday-school teachers, it has 
presented so little that was new to Sunday-school 
work, and has undertaken so many other branches 
of religious enterprise, especially those clustering 
around the daily reading of the Bible, that a de- 
tailed description o. it hardly seems in place here. 

The Foreign Sunday-School Association. Per- 
haps the most interesting work omitted as col- 
lateral is that of the Foreign Sunday-School As- 
sociation. It would be given a separate chapter 
except that, while its headquarters are in Amer- 
ica, its work does not appreciably influence the 
American Sunday-school system. Albert Wood- 
ruff, the founder of the Association, was born in 
the little town of Sardinsfield, Massachusetts, 
among the Berkshire Hills, in 1807.* He started 
in business early, but continued his studies with 
the hope of entering college. At the age of twenty 

• Sunday- Schools Abroad, article reprinted from The 
Independent, n. n., n. d., p. i. 



170 Sunday-School Movements 

he gave up his college hopes and went to New- 
York, where he entered the fish and salt business 
in partnership with his brother. In 1844 he re- 
moved to Brooklyn where he was one of the orig- 
inal members who organized the Church of the 
Pilgrims, and was the first superintendent of its 
Sunday-school. 

In 1856, while enjoying a holiday trip abroad, 
Mr. Woodruff was stirred by the prevalent dese- 
cration of Sunday, particularly in Paris. Being 
convinced that the best hope of the evangelization 
of the world was in voluntary lay effort, it now 
occurred to him that in Europe the Sabbath could 
be best redeemed to Christian uses by the estab- 
lishment of Sunday-schools. A few Sunday- 
schools already existed in Paris and on other 
parts of the Continent, but their influence upon 
European religious life was very slight. Mr. 
Woodruff began by improving the condition of the 
Sunday-schools in Paris. A committee was then 
formed under the Rev. H. Paumier for the pro- 
motion of similar work throughout France. The 
Rev. J. P. Cook became the first Sunday-school 
missionary on the Continent, and Switzerland as 
well as Southern France, showed the results of his 
labor. The success of this work so impressed Mr. 
Woodruff with its importance, that in i860 he 
withdrew from active business and devoted the 
rest of his life to its advancement. 

The Association was incorporated in 1878.'' 

' Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, 1881, vol. X, p. 25. 



Miscellaneous 171 

The work is one of love, no officer or member of 
the society receiving any salary. It is divided 
among four committees of correspondence, each 
committee taking the name of the country in which 
originally most ® of its schools existed. The work 
now reaches far beyond the boundaries of Europe. 
The method of work is simple. The address of 
any reliable Christian who is engaged, or can be 
induced to engage, in Sunday-school work, is se- 
cured from any trustworthy source. A printed 
circular in a language likely to be understood, is 
mailed, describing a simple method of organizing 
and conducting a Sunday-school. With this is 
sent a letter of '' warm Christian sympathy, inquir- 
ing the condition and prospects of Sunday-school 
work in his vicinity." This correspondence is con- 
tinued as long as help is needed, and sometimes 
results in warm friendships. Nor is advice the 
only kind of aid given. Many of these schools are 
in need of such simple aids as Bibles, hymn-books, 
and suitable religious reading for children. These 
the Association helps them to obtain. It has 
started illustrated papers for children in a number 
of languages; such a paper begun in Germany 
having now not only reached self-support, but be- 
come a source of revenue for the German Sunday- 
school committee in Berlin. The Association has 
also translated a number of Sunday-school library 
books into from one to eighteen languages each, 
and distributed many thousands of the volumes. 

•See Annual Reports. 



172 Sunday-School Movements 

These books and papers are highly valued aids, 
since they help to attract the children into the 
schools, and to secure their regularity. From both 
China and Madagascar, tidings have come of con- 
versions ^ attributed to the reading of these books. 
It may be interesting to note that the first trans- 
lated, and the most widely used is Christie's Old 
Organ, or " Home, Sweet Home," by Mrs. Wal- 
ton, a pathetic little story of the conversion and 
hardships of a poor homeless boy. 

Since the death of Mr. Albert Woodruff, some 
years ago, his son, the Rev. Henry Collins Wood- 
ruff has served as President of the Foreign Sun- 
day-school Association. The organization ener- 
getically continues its work, but does not present 
statistical reports, since it does not aim to keep 
Sunday-schools under its control. It has not been 
distracted by the usual pride in organization and 
numbers, but still looks away from itself to the 
needs of others. 

• Report of the 8th International Sunday-School Con- 
vention, '96, p. 313. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONCLUSION 
Part 1 

A century ago it was the function of the Sun- 
day-school to teach reading and moraHty. A large 
proportion of the children of that day had no in- 
tellectual training apart from that given in the 
Sunday-school. Most of those who had other edu- 
cational opportunities considered themselves above 
joining with their less fortunate neighbors, ex- 
cept in the more formal church services. The 
Sunday-school was a sort of mission school among 
the illiterate. To-day the scene is changed. The 
American child is expected to read from the time 
he is eight, or at most nine, years of age. The 
boards and teachers of the secular schools discuss 
with great earnestness the best methods for pro- 
moting morality and virtue, and those who are 
obliged to leave school at an early age are pro- 
vided for by clubs, evening schools and extension 
lectures. The Sunday-schools are attended by rich 
and poor alike, by the student preparing for col- 
lege as well as by the child compelled to work as 
early as the law permits. What now is the object 
of the Sunday-school? Is it time for it to be 
abolished, or has it still in this age of intensity 

173 



174 Sunday-School Movements 

and struggle a mission worthy of the expendi- 
ture of money, thought and energy necessary for 
its Hfe and growth ? 

Since general learning and morality are being 
more properly and thoroughly provided for in the 
secular school system, it seems evident that the fu- 
ture work of the Sunday-school is not to be in that 
line. Let us be firm in this decision. Neverthe- 
less, there is a need for which, as yet, no other 
adequate provision has been made. It is the spir- 
itual. Two other means are suggested, but let us 
consider to what extent they are effective. 

One is the day-school. Many educators hold 
that school work should not only give opportunity 
for strong moral training, but also for the highest 
spiritual development. The teacher, with unsec- 
tarian, spiritual insight, should see the Divine 
Hand through science, and history, and economics, 
and should constantly, though unobtrusively, point 
the child upward. In addition to this, which could 
be made a wonderful force, the more spiritual and 
least controverted parts of the Bible could be read 
and taught, and short devotional exercises could 
be daily held ; exercises carefully planned to lead 
the child to the Deity without introducing ques- 
tioned doctrines. 

Such schools, as a matter of fact, exist. That 
is, they exist so far as any ideals can be expected 
to be actually realized. Why not increase their 
number, leave minor doctrinal teaching to the par- 
ents and homes, and so settle the entire question? 



Conclusion 175 

Because such a compromise, desirable as it may be 
from some points of view, in reality satisfies very 
few. The religious enthusiasts with good reason 
object to the child having excellent specialists in 
every other subject and in this most vital matter 
only secular teachers. Let the school principal be 
a minister and the conditions might be better bal- 
anced. On the other hand, many do not wish any 
spiritual influences mixed with the compulsory in- 
tellectual schooling. Again, from the child-study 
point of view, the child, like the race, must ordi- 
narily pass through more elementary stages of spir- 
itual growth. The small boy who, in his troubles, 
looks up at night to the deep and starry firmament 
and wonders about the Being he dimly pictures 
beyond, is fed by the more concrete, imaginative 
and symbolical stories which attach themselves to 
specific creeds. In the school, nature-study comes 
before science, and distinct branches of science 
before philosophy. So in the spiritual world, the 
child should have his concrete creed and stories 
before he can expand to a vital conception of the 
all-pervading God. 

In this connection it would be well to consider 
the harm that may be done, and is done in some 
schools, by teaching children Bible stories from too 
philosophical a point of view. Bible stories admit 
of many interpretations. Even adult students dif- 
fer in their attitudes towards them, some leaning 
towards poetical and allegorical interpretations, 
and others seeking scientific and historical ex- 



176 Sunday-School Movements 

planations. Be ready to give the child all the ex- 
planations he wants ; but remember that his imag- 
ination is more ready than his reason. He has not 
learned to trace cause and effect in history. He 
can not see the development of races nor the 
progress of the ages. When the teacher has, with 
ingenious skill and delicate conscience eliminated 
all narrow or sectarian mterpretations from the 
Bible lessons, and pointed only to the laws of 
science and the hand of an abstract Providence, 
he has left the child's plane of contact. If the 
child thinks of Providence at all it is with cold joy. 
To teach the Bible in this way is to take the charm 
from the child's best story-book. When the child 
is a little older the result is even worse. There 
comes a time when the young person catches the 
trick of looking for a scientific cause for every- 
thing. This habit can be easily exaggerated, and 
is sometimes even carried to the extent of arrest- 
ing the development at this stage. The Bible can, 
at this period, be made one of the strongest means 
of preventing this arrest. But alas, the method 
used in some schools, simply intensifies the analy- 
tical tendency, and robs that holy fountain of its 
life-giving power. 

The other means suggested for the supply of 
spiritual needs is the home. Here again, how- 
ever, is in most cases the lack of a specialist. 
Ministers' families are fortunate in having the 
specialist among them, and some other families 
succeed in giving the child far more than the 



Conclusion 17'^ 

Sunday-school ever can. But these are excep- 
tions. Although the sweetest spiritual influence 
should always be that of the home, it is not ra- 
tional to expect the man of the world, or the 
woman of ceaseless household cares to be always 
so aglow with spiritual thoughts or so in touch 
with the child's " nascent periods " as to equal 
the teacher of other special branches. As the un- 
sectarian school tends to be too cold and advanced 
in its religious teaching, so too many homes tend 
to hang behind the child and the age. Only gen- 
iuses pass beyond, or even reach, their teachers. 
Human nature falls below its ideals. To intrust 
the religious teaching of children to those of the 
preceding generation who have made no special 
study either of the subject-matter, or of the art 
of teaching, would be to let it steadily degenerate. 
Moreover, the child is a social being and needs 
the psychological stimulus of other children, and 
other people along his spiritual path, as well as 
along his intellectual one. In the American home 
this can be but slight. Differences of creed among 
friends, relatives and even among members of the 
same family, reduce religious beliefs, out of cour- 
tesy, almost entirely to silent, secret thoughts. 
The child should express his inner life. Let the 
Sunday-school of the parent's choice supplement 
the home in opportunities for the child's spiritual 
self-expression and social stimulus, as well as in 
supplying rehgious specialists to lead the young 
soul onward. 



I'l jS Sunday-School Movements 

From this point of view the aim of the Sunday- 
school can be more definitely fixed. Let it be to 
quicken spiritual life and insight, and to give 
knowledge and understanding of the means of 
spiritual growth, as the Bible and the Church. 
To accept such an object in practice as well as in 
theory would settle many of the present difficulties 
of the Sunday-school. Think of the time and 
worry spent by so many conscientious Sunday- 
school teachers in pointing morals and hoping and 
praying that the children may put them in practice 
through the week, or at least be moved by them 
at some future time. True the mission school 
teacher must still concern himself with the moral 
training of his scholars, and no teacher should 
be forgetful of moral habits and principles ; yet 
the day has passed when the teacher of children 
from intelligent homes and proper week-day 
schools should need to shorten the fleeting Sun- 
day hour with digressions or expansions on moral- 
ity. Let the teacher mostly limit his open sug- 
gestions to such as can be put in practice in the 
Sunday-school. Children who have not already 
had considerable moral training, and acquired 
more moral force than many grown people, can 
hardly be expected to carry out moral principles, 
or form moral habits, unless those who have given 
the theoretical side of the matter, can start them 
in the practice. Too many Sunday-school teach- 
ers seem deplorably unconscious of the harm that 
may be done by training a child to hear every 



Conclusion 179 

week moral principles which he hardly ever at- 
tempts to practise. 

It is not intended by this to undervalue the im- 
portance of actions and moral habits. Certainly 
the character, and the real inner life is expressed 
in every outward deed ; yes, in every motion. The 
child whose religious teaching is not shown in 
daily life has not made much progress. It is 
rather because of the great and fundamental im- 
portance of moral habits, and of the hourly oppor- 
tunities the child has for turning one way or the 
other, that the teacher who has the child for an 
hour or so each week should not attempt much 
direct influence in that line. The Sunday-school 
has a vitally important work to do, but that is the 
very reason why the home and the school should 
assume all that circumstances do not force upon 
the Sunday-school. All three institutions must 
cooperate. Fortunately the schools are realizing 
this and giving increasing attention to questions 
of character and morality, so that the Sunday- 
school can restrict its work to what is more exclu- 
sively spiritual. 

The child's spiritual life, according to the above 
aim of the Sunday-school, is to be quickened. This 
is to be done more by the atmosphere of the school 
than by any other means. Not that there should 
be anything intentionally emotional about the 
Sunday-school, but rather that the inherent social 
nature of the child should be allowed to join with 
others in spiritual self-expression. Hymns, re- 



i8o Sunday-School Movements 

sponsive prayers, and free discussion in small 
classes are natural means. Kindness, promptness, 
and similar habits should be insisted upon, for if 
moral habits of self-expression are slighted in the 
Sunday-school, what can be expected of the week- 
day life? Yet the directly spiritual is the chief 
aim of the Sunday-school. The early Church lived 
and grew partly because " All that believed were 
together, and had all things in common.'* Each 
individual was stimulated by the others to do 
everything unto the Lord. They broke bread 
daily together, and according to some, every meal 
was a Eucharist. If the mixed creeds in America 
prevent us from the daily social expression of our 
religious faith, we must take especial care that 
this lack is balanced for the tender child. 

This brings us to the question of spiritual in- 
sight. The elimination of religious expression 
from daily social life makes it exceedingly diffi- 
cult for the child to understand what is meant by 
" doing all things unto the Lord.** What is the 
connection between play, school, and other daily 
occupations and the spiritual life of which the 
young person is conscious on Sunday, and a few 
other occasions ? Does he not need some unifying 
principle? Truly the influence of the day-school 
can do much to help the child to find this. 

Herbart and others have tried to unite the 
school work of the child around a single core. 
That certainly was a great advance from the ex- 
treme disconnection that had almost insulated 



Conclusion 1 8 1 

every separate subject of study. Indeed a life 
without some underlying core of unity is " unstable 
in all its ways." More recent writers, however, 
have seen that complete unity about a single core 
in school work was not as profitable to the child 
as had been expected, but resulted in destroying 
the force of certain subjects. Therefore some 
educators propose that several comparatively dis- 
tinct cores be adopted, as the " humanity," the 
scientific and the economic cores. Now, most nat- 
urally, the specialist in religious training thinks 
his Hne the true uniting core. But in the first 
place religion is not to be prominent in American 
schools, and in the second place, only after one 
has passed through the school stage of independent 
causes, and the college stage of systems of causes, 
and has reached the philosophical stage of seeking 
and seeing the ultimate and unifying Cause, can 
one expect to know the force of religion as the 
true core of unity. Accordingly, one great func- 
tion of the Sunday-school is to give dogmatically 
some high principle of unity to lives unable, from 
youth or other cause, to work out such a principle, 
and to help all to gain such spiritual insight that 
they may understand and form such unifying prin- 
ciples for themselves. 

For this reason it is of vital importance that the 
Sunday-school teacher should have himself 
reached the highest stage of insight. If he has 
never studied nor read what his scholars are study- 
ing and reading through the week, how can he 



1 82 Sunday-School Movements 

expect to show them the relation of that work to 
the spiritual Hfe and religious core? If he has 
never thought out and lived out the daily prob- 
lems of life in the light of his philosophical and 
religious system, how can he hope to make that 
system more than a set of formulae, to the active 
child or youth? If the Sunday-school is to do 
the work we are describing it is absolutely neces- 
sary that it should have a far greater number of 
teachers who have reached this philosophical stage 
of insight. 

On the other hand, with the child's entire life, as 
with his school life, too much attention to this 
principle of unity is unpedagogical. The little 
child neither sees nor wishes to see the connection 
between his different occupations. Diversity and 
frequent transitions are his delight. He hears you 
say that there is a connection and an object in 
view, but only as his mind grows older does he 
begin to know the advantage of such unity of pur- 
pose and take an interest in it. Even at this older 
stage his unifying principle is mostly theoretical. 
In reality he feels rather, as has often been said, 
that he lives in a city of inheritances ; that through 
the southern gates enter the " humanities " and 
art ; through the northern gates, science ; through 
the western gates, economics and the social scien- 
ces ; and through the eastern gates, philosophy and 
religion. He knows that to close any of these 
gates is to forfeit a part of his birthright and 
to narrow his life. Well is it for him if his teach- 



Conclusion 183 

ers can incite him to keep them all open until 
his theoretical principle of unity becomes a con- 
stant and practical reality. 

For this reason far more must be demanded of 
the Sunday-school than merely that it should offer 
opportunity for spiritual self-expression and seek 
to quicken spiritual insight. That alone would be 
sufficient reason for the continuance and improve- 
ment of that much neglected institution ; but when 
we think how many bright minds and strong na- 
tures deliberately close their eastern gates because 
of the poverty and wretchedness of the importa- 
tions, do we not see the importance of some radi- 
cal changes? 

To be sure, some of the eastern inheritance has 
been divested of its characteristic beauty and value, 
and smuggled in through the other gates. The 
Church has misused its power as an instrument for 
freeing man from sin, for lifting him to commun- 
ion with the unseen and spiritual world, and for 
making him a co-worker with the Creator. Men 
have lost their respect for this holy institution, yet 
there still lurks a half-conscious intuition that 
there was some great good to be had from it. Ac- 
cordingly its social functions are increased and dis- 
torted, and if, attracted by these, the church-goer 
happens to be half as much edified by the sermon 
as he might be by a week-day lecture, he flatters 
himself that his religious inheritance is prosper- 
ing worthily. The same with that extraordinary 
product of the East, the Bible. Its power to in- 



184 Sunday-School Movements 

fluence character has been first abused, and then, 
as a natural consequence, reduced to a minimum. 
Still the intellectual world, conscious of the pe- 
culiar force and value of these eastern writings, 
urges that they be allowed some influence as his- 
tory and as literature ; in other words, that they be 
allowed to slip in through the southern gates. 

Now it is the work of the Sunday-school, as an 
educational institution, to make known to the 
youth of America the character and value of this 
eastern inheritance, and to keep the eastern gates 
open till the young lives have become mature. 
Yet how many of our Sunday-schools are almost 
entirely in the hands of superintendents whose 
week-day lives are devoted to business, or law, or 
medicme, and who know practically nothing of 
what the East has to offer. Even the girl of fifteen 
or sixteen who feels herself called upon to take a 
class, may, by pure intuition, have as much idea of 
the real meaning of the work as many of our su- 
perintendents. The Sunday-school is too often 
thought successful when the children keep in good 
order, and the older people talk with them, or to 
them, on profitable subjects of almost any descrip- 
tion. The Sunday-school would be an entirely dif- 
ferent institution if the minister, fresh from the 
study and contemplation of the intense Oriental 
struggles for union with the Spirit of good, and 
in warm sympathy with those of this age, who 
are hungry and forlorn for want of that very 
union, should come to the Sunday-school deter- 



Conclusion 185 

mined that every teacher and every scholar should 
reap the benefit of his study and experience. EacH 
child must, to some extent, live over again the 
world's struggles. If happily he is brought up as 
a spiritual plant, and expands easily year by year, 
he needs the study of man's spiritual development 
as shown in sacred history and literature, in order 
to enrich his life, to give him fuller appreciation of 
why others differ so much from him, and to make 
him understand the historic force of much that is 
about him, and is comparatively worthless except 
as commemorating struggles dear to the human 
race. If he be of those whose lot is doubt and 
anxiety and inward turmoil, then defend him 
against the barrenness of much that is called Sun- 
day-school work. Bring him at least once a week 
into close and personal contact with those who, in 
person or in sympathy, have passed through rough 
waters, and stand firm on the Rock to " stretch 
out a loving hand to wrestlers with the troubled 
sea." Let such lead him eastward. Let such 
make him acquainted with David and Elijah, with 
St. Paul and St. Augustine, and if they and their 
band can show him nothing more in the East than 
history and literature, then let him for the rest of 
this life close his eastern gates. 

This, then, is what is meant by giving " knowl- 
edge and understanding of the means of spiritual 
growth." It is giving knowledge and understand- 
ing of those things which spiritual people and 
spiritual races have found helpful for their highest 



1 86 Sunday-School Movements 

life. It is studying the Bible in the light of all 
the knowledge that can be obtained, in order to 
draw from it the spiritual help and inspiration that 
it offers to the present. It is studying the Church, 
not primarily as a social organization, but as an 
institution tossed about by varying winds ; ex- 
pressing and embodying the most sublime aspira- 
tions of humanity ; and affording the most tangi- 
ble aids to spiritual growth. It is studying the 
thoughts and lives of the richest characters that 
have ever lived, with a view to learning what 
means they used to gain their spiritual superiority. 
In thus restricting the aim of the Sunday-school 
to quickening spiritual life and insight, and giv- 
ing knowledge and understanding of the means 
of spiritual growth, it must not be forgotten that 
circumstances often make it expedient to give part 
of the Sunday session to other matters. But the 
superintendent and other leaders in the school 
should then realize that more than one line of 
work is being carried on. Just as when a country 
post-office, so called, includes the express office, 
news stand, store, employment bureau, and a list 
of other occupations, the manager must all the 
while be conscious of a clearly-defined difference 
between the post-office proper and any other busi- 
ness carried on within the same walls. 

Part II. 

In order to understand this aim of the Sun- 
day-school fully, it is necessary to correlate it 



Conclusion 187 

with the ultimate aim of education. What then 
is the ultimate end of education? The world has 
not decided. Perhaps it never will. Some educa- 
tors hold that the end should be the fullest develop- 
ment of the individual. This aim has its good 
points. The expression " fullest development " is 
elastic enough to include almost anything, and 
implies the effort to include everything. The word 
" individual " emphasizes the Christian idea of the 
worth of each human being as a character. But 
we have learnt empirically that every characteris- 
tic in man has two opposite uses, and this defini- 
tion of the end of education fails to show us which 
of these uses should be cultivated. Again, in seek- 
ing his own development a man is forced to cen- 
ter his thoughts upon himself, a condition which 
Christianity has convinced the more enlightened 
portion of the world to be contrary to man's high- 
est development. 

Other educators hold that the end of education 
should be social service. This is the most recent 
and popular aim among scholars in pedagogy. It 
certainly emphasizes much that the other aim neg- 
lected. It also admits of many interpretations. But 
" society," even in the best use of the term, is a 
product of the past. When we read Dr. John Dew- 
ey's assertion that,^ " Apart from the thought of 
participation in social life the school has no end or 
aim," are we not naturally reminded of Sparta and 

^ The Third Yearbook of the National Hubart Society 
—1897— p. 12. 



1 88 Sunday-School Movements 

China? Upholders of this aim answer, — yes, but 
we have learnt to use the term " society " in a 
broader way, we now know society to be progres- 
sive, and in fitting the child for his environment, 
in preparing him for social service, we must pre- 
pare him both to yield to those constant changes 
and to lend his services towards effecting changes 
for the better. A good answer, but the end " so- 
cial service " does not guide us as to what changes 
are for the better, and indeed it was only by break- 
ing away from social service as an ideal that we 
found the importance of social progress. May 
not this aim, high as it is, blind us to future dis- 
coveries concerning the meaning of education, even 
as it for centuries has blinded races to the idea of 
social progress? 

Aims such as those stated above have a practi- 
cal working value. The discussion of such aims, 
too, throws light upon pedagogical method. The 
objection is chiefly when we look upon such aims 
as ultimate. For practical purposes the teacher 
may speak of memory, and imagination, and rea- 
son, as faculties or powers; but psychologists 
laugh at the idea of building up a theory of mind 
by the combination of these powers, or by exalting 
some one power to the supreme place. Yet this 
is precisely the sort of work done in the philoso- 
phy of education. Psychology, sociology, and such 
words are to the philosopher only terms designat- 
ing cross sections of truth made for purposes of 
practical convenience. But educators look chiefly, 



Conclusion 189 

if not exclusively, to such sciences for their theo- 
ries of education. While this is the case, there is 
little hope of attaining a truly philosophical con- 
ception of the matter. As the psychology of mind 
is far too subtile and profound to be fathomed by 
the mere study either of brain combinations, or of 
the so called mental powers, so the ultimate end of 
education, which should form the basis of the phi- 
losophy of education, is too transcendent to be de- 
termined by the mere consideration of a few of 
these arbitrary divisions of truth, called sciences. 
Unless education is to stop short of philosophy 
and of life, its end or aim must not be expressed 
in terms more narrow than those of philosophy. 

Philosophy speaks of an ultimate Cause or 
Will. Philosophy shows us that the universe is in 
harmony with this ultimate Cause, or is the ex- 
pression of this ultimate Will. Philosophy shows 
us that if man is free, his freedom is in the power 
to be in or out of harmony with the universe. 
What else can a free being, in harmony with the 
ultimate Will of creation, be, but a cooperator 
with the Creator? Why not then express the 
ultimate aim of education as, — Cooperation with 
the Creator and Ruler of the universe ; or in rnore 
strictly philosophical terms, — Cooperation with 
the ultimate Cause or Will behind the universe? 

It is not the object of this paper to decide upon 
the ultimate end or aim of education, but the 
writer believes that until the aim is expressed in 
terms of philosophy rather than in terms of any 



190 Sunday-School Movements 

one, two, or even twenty sciences, we can not hope 
to correlate all educational processes with it. Such 
an aim as that suggested, exalts the aim of indi- 
vidual development, and adds an infinite motive to 
the finite aim of social service. It elevates all ad- 
vanced education and search for truth from the 
low plane of serving the individual or society to 
the higher plane of revealing the supreme Will. 

Such an aim would also help to reunite our di- 
vorced religious and secular learning. It may be 
well in America to have two institutions, one for 
religious, and one for secular instruction, but it 
can hardly be well that these two institutions 
should have different ultimate aims. The present 
condition of education in America suggests a house 
divided against itself. Children in day-school are 
practically taught to look upon the social life of 
this world as their highest aim. Children in Sun- 
day-school are constantly taught that they should 
renounce the world as evil. No sciences can set 
an ideal which will satisfy the Church. No re- 
ligious standard, in the narrower sense of the 
term, can be satisfactory to an avowedly secular 
school system. But philosophy, as the sister of 
religion and the parent of the sciences, can show 
how the proper aims of both should culminate in 
their common Source. 

From this point of view, the Sunday-school 
should give a deeper meaning to the work of the 
day-school, and the day-school should give greater 
reality to the teachings of the Sunday-school. The 



Conclusion 191 

child cannot reach the Creator through philosophy. 
His only means of seeing the high end to which 
education would lead him, is through religious in- 
struction. Accordingly, the Sunday-school should 
be considered part of the American educational 
system. It should be given organization and 
methods which stand comparison with our other 
educational institutions, and which are worthy of 
our Nation. 

Part III. 

What then is the first great need of the Ameri- 
can Sunday-school as it stands to-day ? The ques- 
tion at once suggests so many and such fundamen- 
tal weaknesses that the answer can not come has- 
tily. We believe, however, that the first great 
need is the trained superintendent. If the Sun- 
day-school is to stand on a plane with other insti- 
tutions of learning its superintendent must stand 
as an equal among the principals of these institu- 
tions. How can the cause of education prosper, 
when a large branch, affecting children of all ages, 
is practically never represented in the gatherings 
of educational leaders? Sunday-school superin- 
tendents care little, and know less, about the great 
topics under investigation among trained educa- 
tors. Our high-school boy spends five days of the 
week under the influence of a well rounded and 
highly educated man, a man of executive ability, 
a man technically trained both in the leading sub- 
jects of his school and in the science of education, 



192 Sunday-School Movements 

a man of strong personality, and awake to the life 
of the times. Does the superintendent of the in- 
stitution to which our high-school boy is urged to 
come for his deepest thoughts and sublimest in- 
spirations possess such qualifications? 

The importance of the superintendent being a 
well rounded and highly educated man, was par- 
tially brought out in speaking of the aim of the 
Sunday-school. Just in proportion as the insti- 
tution is to show the child a core of unity in life, 
the head of the institution must know the demands 
of life and the pupil's other means of preparing 
for life. Again, as holding a prominent position 
in the national system of education^ he should 
know enough of other branches to properly corre- 
late his own with them. American time, and es- 
pecially the brief Sunday-school hour, is too pre- 
cious to be wasted in duplicating the work of the 
day-school ; and the present custom of teaching 
contradictory principles in the different institu- 
tions is worse than ridiculous. The well rounded 
and highly educated Sunday-school superintend- 
ent will command the respect not only of his teach- 
ers and scholars, but of the world, and of other 
educators, so that his attempts to adjust his work 
to the great scheme of education need not all be 
concessions. 

Moreover, if the Sunday-school superintend_ent 
is to hold this high position as an educator, he must 
have technical training in the philosophy of edu- 
cation. Well is it for him if he be skilled in the 



Conclusion 193 

art of teaching, but this is of secondary import- 
ance, since the superintendent is less a teacher than 
an influencer among teachers and thinkers. It is 
his business to know what the child is, and whither 
it tends, what forces it needs to help it in the de- 
sired direction, which of these forces are provided 
for outside of the Sunday-school, and how to se- 
cure the desired forces within the Sunday-school ; 
and it is most strongly urged that the superintend- 
ent should not content himself with a training- 
school treatment of these profound subjects. His 
studies in the philosophy of education should be 
carried on in the university spirit ^ and should 
include something of the philosophy of life, and of 
the philosophy of religion. With such a training 
the influence of the Sunday-school superintend- 
ent may reach far beyond his own little school. 
He may help to establish higher ideals concerning 
the ultimate end of education. In short he may 
take his proper place in the world's history. 

The superintendent's need of executive ability 
is generally conceded, although many Sunday- 
schools fail to secure the services of one who pos- 
sesses it. Religious knowledge and training, 
though theoretically accepted by most Sunday- 

* Our United States Commissioner of Education ques- 
tioned the advisability of this remark on the ground 
that, while it is ideally true, too many universities of to- 
day give courses in the Philosophy of Education which 
are not, in his opinion, truly philosophical, and which 
tend to lead the student away from such methods as Dr. 
Harris thinks should be used in the Sunday-school. 



194 Sunday-School Movements 

school workers as the prime requisite, is much 
more willingly ignored. Yet how would any 
other technical institution prosper with a superin- 
tendent who knew little or nothing of the subject? 
Imagine a school of philosophy with a dean who 
was not a philosopher, or a school of art vv^hose 
principal was not an artist, or a kindergarten with 
a principal who knew nothing of child-play. For- 
tunately most of our Sunday-schools are connected 
with churches. In some of our best managed 
schools the real superintendent is the nominal su- 
perintendent, that is, the executive head, plus the 
minister. Where the two really work together, 
eacn appreciating the other's position, and neither 
neglecting his own part, this is a most happy ar- 
rangement. Unfortunately, in too many cases 
where this is theoretically the plan, the minister, 
pressed by other parochial duties, steps back and 
ceases to be a vital influence in the school. Left 
with only an executive head, the teachers soon 
lose the glow of high ideals, and the warmth and 
intensity which radiates from the presence of a 
specialist aflame with love for his subject. The 
spirit of the institution is gone. 

It is to the lack of leaders with these four vital 
qualifications that we trace nearly all of the short- 
comings and mistakes of the modern Sunday- 
school. The American Sunday-School Union 
does an excellent work in planting Sunday-schools 
where there is a dearth of religious teaching, but 
it must look to other organizations for the up- 



Conclusion 



195 



building of these schools and the training of suit- 
able leaders. The National Convention Organiza- 
tion undertakes this work. It did well to make 
the start. It does well in that it reaches thousands 
who need its encouraging word " Go on," and 
its suggestions as to organization. But where are 
the ideals of this gigantic machine? How can it 
plan a lesson system abreast with the times, while 
it magnifies loyalty to its first attempts, and re- 
gards knowledge of the child or of educational 
theory as of less importance than conservatism? 
How can it train teachers and superintendents, 
when its leaders have no knowledge of the prob- 
lems under consideration by the educational 
world? How can it build up Sunday-schools thai 
will quicken spiritual life and insight, when it en- 
courages the extensive and public offering of ma- 
terial rewards, and, notwithstanding the large pro- 
portion of ordained ministers among its leaders, 
exalts " organization " as its chief aim and pride ? 
Chautauqua has seen a higher ideal, and has 
made a wonderful beginning. It has grappled 
with the Sunday-school's great problem, — ^the edu- 
cation of its workers. It has sought to reach the 
many, offering both broad knowledge and special 
training, yet urging spiritual aims. The Chau- 
tauqua movement is almost the only movement 
of the present that seems to see where the Sunday- 
school is most in need, and even Chautauqua seems 
in discouragement to have scattered its blessings 
when a more concentrated and persistent service 



196 Sunday-School Movements 

might do more to raise the condition of the Sun- 
day-school. Moreover, the times now demand 
that at least in city Sunday-schools the superin- 
tendents, if not the teachers, should be required, 
rather than urged, to give themselves a thorough 
training for their work. They should be expected 
to devote not merely an hour or so a day to 
study, but entire years, just as if preparing for 
one of the so-called professions. 

This does not mean that a Sunday-school super- 
intendent should spend two years at some train- 
ing school for Christian workers in preference to 
a longer period of combined practical preparation 
and Chautauqua study. On the contrary, the lat- 
ter would probably produce the better result. 
Chautauqua has the ideals of a university, if it has 
not all its advantages. The schools for Christian 
workers are comparatively narrow and misleading. 
" Christian work " is not a profession in itself, 
requiring a technical school. If the " Christian 
worker " is to be a teacher or a superintendent, he 
needs the same preparation that other teachers 
and superintendents need. If his specialty as 
teacher or superintendent is to be biblical or re- 
ligious, let him attend a divinity school and elect 
fitting courses just as a scientific specialist attends 
a school of science and elects his courses. In other 
words, preparation for a Sunday-school superin- 
tendent should ordinarily be either university work 
in the philosophy of education, with work at the 
theological seminary as a minor subject, or a theo- 



Conclusion 197 

logical course with university work in education as 
prominent electives. Obviously the former course 
would fit the superintendent better for a Sunday- 
school of small children, and the latter course 
would fit him better for work with older scholars. 

A man with such preparation could not be ex- 
pected to carry on some business of an entirely 
different nature through the week. He must be 
either an educator or a minister by profession. If 
an educator, he should plan his time as the prin- 
cipal of a boarding-school would, and consider his 
Sunday work part of the same interest as his week- 
day work. All men are not Thomas Arnold's, 
yet there is little reason why our school system 
should not Expect its week-day superintendents 
to serve as religious teachers on Sunday, and re- 
serve strength for the proper fulfillment of such 
Sunday work. 

On the other hand, if the Sunday-school super- 
intendent be a minister he should deliberately plan 
to give a large proportion of his time and thought 
to educational interests, and to the Sunday-school. 
But ministers feel that they are already over- 
whelmed with more pressing and important du- 
ties. If so, we need more ministers. Perhaps we 
need two kinds of ministers. There are some 
who are by nature and education preachers, 
who can attract large numbers of adults, fill great 
city churches, and produce an almost unending 
succession of brilliant intellectual conceptions be- 
yond the reach of the child mind. These do a 



198 Sunday-School Movements 

grand work and are in a sense the successors of St. 
Paul. Others are more of St. John's temperament. 
Their work is no less important because less no- 
torious. Let such as have the power in them 
prepare themselves as sacred educators. The small 
church needs the educator type, for he must teach 
both old and young. The large church needs a 
minister of each type. 

Moreover, with regard to the institutions of 
learning, in proportion as theological seminaries 
and university departments of education come into 
closer contact, respect and sympathy rises between 
them. This increasing interest will add to the 
number of intelligent ministers and of religious 
educators. More than this, if the courses of both 
institutions are open to all who can profit by them, 
there is more incitement to maintain such courses 
as must command respect, and more inclination on 
the part of students, and even outsiders, to respect 
what can evidently stand inspection. The day has 
passed when a theological seminary should teach 
with closed doors, as though its mysteries were a 
sort of occult lore. The Church in this land is 
not an Oriental bride who should keep her face 
veiled. America respects what it sees is worthy of 
respect. If we would have an intelligently re- 
ligious nation and a Church free from self-fos- 
tered error, let us open the doors of our semi- 
naries and bring them into the closest possible re- 
lationships with the universities. 

Some stress has been laid upon the importance 



Conclusion 199 

of the Sunday-school superintendent being quali- 
fied to take a position among educational leaders, 
and lend a hand in moulding the educational stand- 
ards of the nation. This is by no means the only 
use to which his broad training is to be put. 
Within the Sunday-school he has a great and un- 
planned work. Unplanned, yes, but fortunately 
so, since those who have offered plans have mostly 
been poorly qualified to form them. He must act, 
yet with only indirect guidance. He must add 
to his other duties that of building up a theory 
upon which to act, and if possible a theory suffi- 
ciently broad and scientific to serve as a guide to 
others. For instance, there is the great problem 
of Sunday-school music. Children enjoy singing ; 
psychology and child-study encourage it ; and our 
first study should be what kind of hymns children 
of different ages enjoy. When the hymns are 
properly adapted to the child, singing becomes a 
means of self-expression and one of the greatest 
means of quickening spiritual life. And since we 
have this definite end in view as the object of our 
Sunday-school work, our second study should be, 
which of the hymns that children enjoy, or that 
they can normally be taught to enjoy, best serve 
this end. 

When first entering upon Sunday-school work 
the writer was much impressed by the fact that a 
certain large class of boys, ranging from eight 
to seventeen years of age, who had a Sunday hour 
in a room with only themselves and the teacher. 



200 Sunday-School Movements 

showed a strong preference for hymns of heaven. 
Was it the sentimental or the spiritual that they 
sought? They were encouraged to suggest the 
opening and closing hymns and even on one occas- 
ion to choose the topic of a request lesson. With 
one accord all wished the request lesson to be about 
heaven, or as some expressed it, the last chapter 
in Revelation. It seemed that they were reaching 
out to connect themselves with the spiritual world. 
The lesson was treated in this practical way, and 
all imaginative descriptions omitted, and those 
active boys were so gratified that they asked to 
have the lesson time doubled. 

Since that the writer has in several connections 
studied the preferences of young people with re- 
gard to hymns. At one time psychological tests 
were being made on the pupils of a private day- 
school in New York. The scholars represented 
a variety of religious denominations. They were 
tested in small groups and their work was written, 
so that there was a minimum of temptation to 
work for show. No credit was given for the work. 
The papers were not shown to any of the school 
teachers, and the testor was not otherwise con- 
nected with the scholars. Between other tests the 
pupils were requested to name their favorite 
hymns. After the names were on paper, they 
were asked to state whether they thought they 
cared more for the music or the words. Then they 
were requested to write out as much of the hymns 
as they could remember, or if no definite words 



Conclusion 201 

were recalled, to give the thought that the hymn 
expressed. These tests did not include young 
children, but it was surprising that scholars twelve 
years old and over, who must have heard many 
catchy and worthless hymns, in every case took 
strong and standard ones, and in every case either 
remembered the leading and characteristic words 
or expressed well the real theme in their own 
words. 

The subject requires further investigation, and 
the trained Sunday-school superintendent seems 
the man to undertake the work. The following 
suggestions are offered only as a provisional basis 
of action. Infant class and primary children en- 
joy descriptive hymns such as, '' While shepherds 
watched their flocks by night," " I think when I 
read that sweet story of old," " Saw you never in 
the twilight," and Bishop Brooks' " O little town 
of Bethlehem." They also enjoy hymns of love 
and of guiding care, such as, " Saviour, like a 
shepherd lead us," " Now, the day is over," and 
" Children of the Heavenly King." But with 
very little children the fondness for the hymn de- 
pends largely upon the frequency with which it is 
sung. They learn hymns slowly, but when once 
learnt they rarely forget them. Obviously it is 
important to teach them hymns of which they 
will never weary. 

Children between about eight and twelve care 
most for the active, social hymns, hymns of spirit 
and hymns with choruses. Nevertheless, they are 



202 Sunday-School Movements 

often deeply impressed by hymns of subdued tone 
and delicate expression. Is this the time to teach 
them some of those hymns which grow richer 
with after life, but which may have a morbid in- 
fluence if taught during the adolescent stage? 

Older boys and girls, while enjoying the swing 
and social influence of hymns such as " Onward, 
Christian soldiers " and " We march, we march," 
appreciate them mostly at the opening and closing 
of a service. Their real favorites, as noted by the 
writer, are such as " Rock of ages," *' Come, ye 
disconsolate," " Lead, kindly Light," '' From 
every stormy wind that blows," and " One sweetly 
solemn thought ; " together with hymns of great 
ideas such as " The Church's one foundation " 
and Bishop Heber's '' Holy, Holy, Holy ! " ; and 
the evening hymns, and hymns of heaven, includ- 
ing Faber's immortal and justly popular ** Hark, 
hark, my soul ! Angelic songs are swelling." 

If this is the case, it would be wiser to fit our 
teaching more to the growing intensity of our 
scholars' lives, and make less attempt to keep 
down to what we imagine they ought to like. 
Encourage young people to express their spiritual 
life, for this is the chief object of the Sunday- 
school. Let them as often as possible choose their 
own hymns, and let there be no comments to em- 
barrass them in choosing, or incite them to un- 
natural selections. Children and young people 
live intense lives. They want something through 
which they can pour their rising emotions. Good 



Conclusion 203 

music and appropriate hymns may keep them from 
bad literature and bad company. 

Yet our object is not alone to provide an oppor- 
tunity for the scholar's self-expression. We must 
guide him in a right development. Here it would 
be well to study the Greek thoughts as to music ; 
for some artistically beautiful hymns are unques- 
tionably morally enervating in their effects. Too 
much passive resignation and sighing submission 
is not in tone with healthy young life. " Peace, per- 
fect peace " is but a transient or misguided desire 
for the young Christian warrior. Hymns of strug- 
gle and hymns expressive of life's deepest emo- 
tions ; hymns of redemption from sin, and hymns 
of guidance through crises; hymns of love, of 
praise and of heaven, these are what the young 
soul longs for. Both words and music in keeping 
with these subjects are what the Sunday-school 
scholar needs ; for music has a moral tone of its 
own. Compare the piotracted languor and sus- 
tained emotions of some Italian music with the 
stronger movements of most German measures. 
The introduction of weak, sentimental music ac- 
companied the fall of Greece. 

Again, we should lead children to the Church 
as one of the great means of spiritual growth. 
Since they early learn to take delight in singing 
the standard church hymns, there is less danger 
than some people fear that the service of the Sun- 
day-school will lead to neglect of the church serv- 
ice. When young people learn to enjoy singing 



204 Sunday-School Movements 

hymns they will enjoy going where those hymns 
are sung. By all means let us keep the two serv- 
ices in harmony so that the enjoyment of one 
implies enjoyment of the other. It can be made 
one of the surest ways of leading the young to 
church. If possible have the church organist play 
for the school, but if this is done be sure that the 
organist can refrain from elaborate music. It is 
the touch which the children will hear in church, 
and the musician's sensitive appreciation, that we 
want in the Sunday-school. The mere question 
of time, so apparently simple and fundamental, 
requires great skill. If the time falls a little be- 
low the normal, serious music becomes languid, 
martial music becomes lifeless, and whatever the 
theme the scholars are left in a weary frame, un- 
likely to put any good thought into action. If the 
time is unappreciatively hastened and the wor- 
shipful element is lost, the child has neither time 
nor inclination to think of the divine Presence to 
whom his hymn is addressed, active impulses are 
over-excited, and the atmosphere of the room tends 
to disorder. Give us the best music attainable in 
both church and Sunday-school, and each will add 
to the influence of the other. 

A second great subject which should be studied 
by the trained educator whose specialty is spirit- 
ual development, is Sunday-school prayers. This 
subject is closely related to the former. In fact 
many hymns are prayers, and the scholars should 
feel that they are. In the same way it is quite 



Conclusion 205 

appropriate that they should feel that the actual, 
so called prayers may be expressed in words set 
to music. It is all worship, and one advantage in 
music is that it helps the child to take part in the 
service. Every one has seen Sunday-schools 
where the prayer was a mere form, and the best 
children only behaved quietly till it was over. 
What education is that ? The children's thoughts 
must be drawn to the prayer, and one of the best 
ways to do this is to set some simple petition to 
appropriate, solemn music, let them hear it re- 
peatedly, and set them the example of reverently 
joining in it. Most people have felt what Henry 
Ward Beecher meant when he said that music in 
a service had an effect which one could never ob- 
tain while alone in the closet. Children feel this 
in the musical prayer. The kindergarten uses it, 
and offers us one of the most beautiful of chil- 
dren's prayers in that little song, " Father we 
thank Thee for the night." Why should the Sun- 
day-school lag behind? 

Besides the effect of the music, other principles 
are involved in song prayers, though those prin- 
ciples may be made use of without music. One, 
is that of self-activity. A little child may wonder 
in silence, he may listen to a story in silence, but 
in most matters silence and inactivity mean that 
he is not taking part, he is wondering about some- 
thing else. Give him something to say and do in 
the prayer, and the prayer may become his. Give 
him words to say or sing and an attitude to take, 



2o6 Sunday-School Movements 

and if they are fitted to his nature they will prob- 
ably become part of self-expression. When once 
the child has learned to take the prayers as his, he 
may be led up through responsive prayers to those 
in which he takes no audible part. In churches 
where amens are said after the prayers, children 
should learn to consider it a matter of principle to 
say the amen, otherwise it is like sending an un- 
signed letter or presenting a ragged offering. In 
short, children should both be given a decidedly 
active part in the Sunday-school prayers when 
young, and be incited to feel it an obligation to 
take whatever part is offered them when older. 

As to the advisability of young people leading in 
extemporaneous prayers, or even in any prayers, 
there is division of opinion. One thing, how- 
ever, is sure, namely that few people, young or 
old, can do it without to some extent addressing 
the prayer to the audience rather than to God. It 
requires no further remarks to show the great 
harm that such praying must do the young leader. 

Another principle involved in the song prayer 
is that of repetition. If Sunday-school prayers 
are for the children to take part in, they must both 
express what is within child nature to wish, and 
express it in a way which children can understand. 
A new prayer must be exceedingly simple and 
rather short if a child is to grasp it. But when the 
same prayer is used frequently the child grows 
into the meaning. This same principle holds with 
hymns, anthems, and all other parts of the service. 



Conclusion aoy 

Imagine a person singing for the first time the 
words, — 

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, ac- 
cording to thy word: 

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 

(To be) a light to lighten the Gentiles, and (to be) the 
glory of thy people Israel. 

Even an adult would do better to listen than to 
try to sing, and could get no real idea of the mean- 
ing till he knew the story of Simeon. Yet when a 
Sunday-school, excepting the infant class, is 
taught to sing that to simple, expressive music, 
and is carefully told the story behind it, the man- 
ner and expression of the children, as well as their 
answers to questions about it, show that they have 
considerable understanding of the matter. The 
intrinsic solemnity and sublimity of such words 
has a spiritually elevating effect which can rarely 
be obtained by the use of words so simple that 
they are appreciated the first time they are heard. 
A careful treatise on the Sunday-school use of 
what might be called classic prayers, indicating 
among other things the average ages of the chil- 
dren to whom the prayers are empirically found 
adapted, would be of great value to the Sunday- 
school. 

The process of teaching prayers is an exceed- 
ingly delicate one. To have children recite or re- 
hearse them tends to make them commonplace. 



i2o8 Sunday-School Movements 

In fact it frequently leads to irreverence. If it is 
possible, the best plan is to have a number of older 
people, or better still older children, know the 
prayer and take part. Where this is done the 
younger or newer children quickly learn to join 
in. A slight suggestion, a word of encouragement, 
or a short explanation is all the teaching that 
should be necessary to bring the prayer within 
their reach. 

If prayers are rightly used, they can, above any 
other part of the Sunday-school exercises, tend to 
quicken spiritual life. To this end they should be 
strictly spiritual. Let them include thanksgiving ; 
petitions for forgiveness ; for help, strength, guid- 
ance and the divine presence; for others, and for 
the coming of the kingdom of God. Yet, import- 
ant as prayers are in the Sunday-school, they 
should be decidedly short. The habit of lengthy 
petitioning is not natural to childhood. Is not the 
highest use of prayer the bringing of one's self 
to the consciousness of the divine presence, and 
putting one's self in harmony with the supreme 
Will ? The child can easily be taught to feel this. 
He can also be taught that on coming into Sun- 
day-school he is coming more especially into God's 
presence, and that a short prayer in acknowledg- 
ment of this is the natural opening or closing. 
There are reasons for preceding this opening 
prayer by a hymn of praise or call to worship. 
But these details must be left for the investigation 
of our trained superintendents. 



Conclusion 209 

The much disputed question as to whether the 
Sunday-school superintendent should assume di- 
rectly instructive work, either in the general exer- 
cises or in a special class taught during the school 
session, depends to such an extent upon the cir- 
cumstances in which the school is placed that the 
answer should be left largely, at least for the pres- 
ent, with each trained worker. One rule, how- 
ever, seems clear; namely, that since children 
learn by doing, the superintendent should see that 
they have opportunity not only to sing and to 
pray, but to act in connection with their other 
teaching. To this end superintendents should ap- 
ply more trained knowledge and power to the 
question of Sunday-school exercises and enter- 
tainments. Much that most children now either 
never learn, or acquire with hard work, could be 
made a delight. Secular schools now give enter- 
tainments and commencements which are highly 
educational and still a great pleasure to the schol- 
ars. Is there anything so peculiar about religion 
that its special occasions must be celebrated by 
exercises foreign to its regular work and aim? 

The writer knows a Sunday-school where each 
Easter celebration is made attractive by the ap- 
propriate religious exercises of the children. 
These take the place of the sermon, only a few 
remarks being added by the minister. One year, 
for instance, the children recited the ten chief ap- 
pearances of our Lord between His Resurrection 
and His Ascension. Each child learnt one verse 



aio Sunday-School Movements 

from the Bible. All who had verses concerning 
a given appearance came to the front of the church 
together, stood in order, and reciting in turn gave 
a complete account. After the ten appearances 
were finished, some of the older scholars recited 
from I Corinthians xv, concerning the meaning of 
the Resurrection for us. Behind the place where 
the children recited was a large green board, ele- 
vated above their heads, and containing in gilt 
letters the words " * Christ is risen ' He was seen 
at least lo times." This was framed with fern 
leaves. After each group recited, each member 
of the group handed a small bunch of flowers to 
a young man who stood by, and the flowers were 
placed in holes made in the frame between the 
fern leaves. The effect was beautiful. But what 
is of more account, the children are so anxious to 
take part on these occasions that those who are 
not regularly appointed to recite, learn sometimes 
several parts with the hope that an opportunity 
can be made for them. The chairman of the com- 
mittee always finds some place for the most in- 
dustrious enthusiasts, so there is no ill-feeling. 
More strange than all, the chairman has not ob- 
served any intentional irreverence during any re- 
hearsal or celebration, but is confident that the 
majority of the children appreciate the work from 
a religious point of view. 

If the above Sunday-school can succeed in pre- 
senting, year after year, a variety of such educa- 
tional, yet strictly religious exercises, it seems 



Conclusion an 

strange that so many Sunday-schools still cele- 
brate their sacred festivals, either in an extremely 
monotonous and uninteresting manner, or by in- 
troducing secular and quite irrelevant material. 
Here again we see the need of trained religious 
teachers showing the Sunday-school world what 
can be done, and perhaps even presenting the 
actual outlines of a variety of such services that 
they may be adapted and used by weaker schools. 

We have seen that leaders in educational 
thought and study need the representative of re- 
ligious training. We have also seen that children 
need such a man to direct and conduct their Sun- 
day-school exercises. Still another class needs 
the trained superintendent. It has been suggested 
that the teachers need the inspiration of the pres- 
ence of a specialist. They need more than that. 
They need his personal encouragement and guid- 
ance. 

This need is strongly felt by a large proportion 
of Sunday-school workers, and the result is that 
efforts are made to bring officers and teachers to- 
gether in what are called teachers' meetings. But 
most Sunday-schools find it difficult to secure even 
a small attendance on these occasions. No day or 
hour seems to accommodate a majority. No 
scheme of work seems to arouse a lasting interest. 
Those who come, come from a sense of duty, or 
for social purposes. Why should this be? It is 
because the meetings are not worthy of the teach- 
ers. Even the executive business is too often con- 



0.12 Sunday-School Movements 

ducted in either an arbitrary or a shiftless man- 
ner. When it comes to the educational work, the 
leader does not know where to begin. The plan 
of teaching the lesson for the following Sunday 
is usually resorted to. What is the result? The 
teachers learn to lean on the easy arm of the leader 
instead of searching for themselves the great au- 
thorities which the leader has reviewed for the 
occasion. Worse still, they build up their lessons 
from what has impressed them in the teachers* 
meeting, and they lose that power which comes 
from planning a lesson upon the fresh conscious- 
ness of the needs of the young lives over which 
they should have a strong personal influence. If 
there is any advantage in the system of small 
classes in vogue among our Sunday-schools, this 
advantage is lost when the teachers develop their 
lessons from the suggestions of those who do not 
know the individual scholars. Just so far as the 
teacher receives help from such a class or lecture 
he becomes a machine. 

What then is the needed help which the super- 
intendent should give ? It is the stimulation which 
comes from broad and practical ideas. Let him 
call the teachers once a month, or once a week as 
he sees fit, and discuss v/ith them the concrete 
questions of method which arise in every such 
institution. Let them discuss the work of the in- 
dividual classes and teachers, that each may know 
what his neighbour is doing, and be incited by a 
mutual giving and receiving of suggestions. 



Conclusion 213 

Under the present conditions it is a great ad- 
vantage when the minister or Sunday-school su- 
perintendent can give some course of lectures or 
studies collateral to the regular Sunday-school 
work. For instance, a course on child-study 
could hardly fail to be suggestive to the majority 
of Sunday-school teachers. A short course on 
general method might easily be made interesting 
as well as profitable. Some addresses or discus- 
sions on recent Sunday-school movements and on 
the different lesson systems would have a broad- 
ening influence. Concrete studies of great Bible 
characters or of the grand and quickening themes 
of Scripture are always helpful, whether they be 
given as lectures to teachers, as courses in a sem- 
inary, or as addresses and sermons to parishioners. 

Part IV 

The second great need of the Sunday-school is 
of such importance that many consider it the first. 
It is the qualified teacher. The two great needs 
are so akin that the supply of one would greatly 
facilitate the supply of the other. In fact while 
the thoroughly trained superintendent can achieve 
little in a large school without qualified teachers, 
he can, as has been suggested, do much to pro- 
duce such teachers. 

There are three important qualifications which 
should be insisted upon. The first is such person- 
ality and general power as will enable the teacher 



214 Sunday-School Movements 

to create a spiritual atmosphere for his class. It 
is a radical mistake to let young teachers or Bible 
class scholars feel that the one who possesses 
knowledge of the Bible and ability to keep a class 
in order deserves an appointment as Sunday- 
school teacher. Sunday-school teaching is not to 
be looked upon as a privilege to which those who 
have attended Sunday-school regularly are en- 
titled. It is a work fraught with obhgation and 
self-sacrifice, not with popular privileges. The 
teacher must control conversation and treat all 
subjects in a sacred light ; for his object is to 
quicken spiritual life and to make the children feel 
a core of unity in all their interests. While exer- 
cising a personal influence upon his class, he must 
constantly turn the children's thoughts away from 
himself to the Church, to the Bible, and above all 
to Him who alone is changeless and perfect. 
Truly the Sunday-school exists partly that chil- 
dren may be stimulated in their religious life by 
social contact, but many leave the Sunday-school 
with such slight interest in other means of spirit- 
ual growth, that when the social influence of their 
teachers is withdrawn their religious life wanes. 
Scholars should be taught and teachers should be 
required to have the power of drawing spiritual 
life and influence from the immortal Source. 

That this power is important for the superin- 
tendent is beyond question, but it is hardly to be 
supposed that it would be lacking in one who has 
made a specialty of religious training. Many 



Conclusion 215 

Sunday-school teachers, however, act as though 
the idea of spiritual atmosphere was unknown to 
them. This is inexcusable. The power under 
discussion, while of vital importance to the Sun- 
day-school, is less a matter of the specialist's en- 
thusiasm than of general character. 

The next essential qualification for the teacher 
is a knowledge of the child and how to reach 
him. This too is partly a matter of general char- 
acter, and especially with a woman it is largely 
intuitional. Nevertheless, nature can be de- 
veloped, and the hints and suggestions which 
pedagogy has to offer can greatly help the teacher 
in his process of learning by experience. The 
teacher is an artist, and while he should give his 
native powers full opportunity for action he 
should remember that some rules are the very 
means of freedom and power. 

This suggests the problem of Sunday-school 
normal classes. It seems incredible that at this 
stage of the history of education classes of grown 
and almost grown men and women should meet 
time after time and learn lists of names and of 
facts, should even take examinations upon their 
memory of those lists and receive diplomas, and 
think they are becoming exceptionally well pre- 
pared for the highest kind of teaching. How 
much can any number of memory drills fit a 
teacher to guide that most delicate of all creations, 
the soul of a little child ? It seems rather that the 
normal class should deal with the child nature 



21 6 Sunday-School Movements 

and with the essentials of method in teaching; 
though for those who have Httle experience, it 
should touch on even these subjects in a light and 
suggestive way, lest it kill the native powers. 
When the normal class deals with subject-matter 
it should be from the point of view of method and 
child-study, otherwise it gives the unconscious 
impression that Bible study is of value not for 
the rich personal life it nourishes but for the 
cold purpose of being able to hand down formal 
knowledge. In so far as Bible study is under- 
taken for the sake of the members of the class, the 
gathering should be called a Bible class. 

Knowledge of the subject-matter to be taught 
is the third qualification to be insisted upon. This 
must not be confused with knowledge about the 
subject obtained from other sources. In the case 
of the Bible, for instance, the direct study of the 
Bible itself must be demanded. How much of 
this knowledge should be required ? Just so much 
as will give the teacher the feeling that he not 
only loves the children but has something which 
has given him deep pleasure and which he there- 
fore longs to impart to them. Beyond this it is 
not necessary that every teacher should be a spe- 
cialist, though it is highly desirable if he has broad 
general training to keep him balanced, that he 
should have such religious training as will make 
him a sympathetic coworker with the minister. 
Indeed if the leading teachers in each school could 
have some university and theological training, and 



Conclusion 1217 

study in the same classes with the ministers and 
superintendents, there would be much less indif- 
ference and clashing between them. The teachers 
of Bible and normal classes, at least, should have 
that philosophical insight which comes with a full 
and rounded education, for in accordance with the 
above ideas of the aim of the Sunday-school, to 
impart this philosophical insight is one of the 
teacher's chief duties. 

As soon as we have Sunday-school teachers 
with these three qualifications we find dissatis- 
faction with the present lesson systems. This is 
most natural. The International Lesson System, 
as we have seen, ignores child-study. Moreover 
it avowedly adapts itself to those who are the least 
qualified as teachers. This policy is a good one, 
and should not be checked so long as the great 
majority of the teachers are unqualified for their 
work. Nevertheless it results in the disuse of the 
system by the better teachers. 

The Bible Study Union system is a step in ad- 
vance of the other. It embodies some admirable 
and fundamental theories. Yet it is formal and 
monotonous. Its knowledge of the child and of 
methods of teaching extends little beyond the 
chance intuitions of a few individuals. Its ques- 
tions, while often excellent in themselves, prevent 
the teacher from developing the lesson according 
to the needs of his individual class and with the 
glow of his own personality. What trained 
teacher of any other " content " study would in 



21 8 Sunday-School Movements 

this age be satisfied to develop each lesson accord- 
ing to another's plan, and ask the very questions 
supplied by others ? 

Catechisms are the only other important method 
of religious instruction in extensive use. While 
many of these catechisms begin with the known 
and lead on in true pedagogical manner, yet the 
very fact that the questions and answers are pre- 
scribed and ever the same gives them a deadening 
influence upon the awakening spiritual life. Be- 
yond this, it need hardly be argued that the best 
and most used of our catechisms are monuments of 
the past. It must be confessed that even the most 
orthodox of our teachers rarely believe in all that 
the catechism of the Sunday-school teaches. Why 
then such mockery? Children are quick to feel 
it. In after life it frequently becomes a cause of 
bitter reaction against religion. The consequences 
are too serious. Let us cease to write catechisms 
for children, and let us study such wonderful pro- 
ductions as Luther's catechisms, the Westminster 
catechisms, the Heidelberg catechism and the 
Episcopal prayer book catechism, in the light of 
Church history. 

At first thought this leaves the teacher in need 
of a new lesson system, and there are those who 
are trying to supply this apparent want. But a 
lesson system is exactly what the qualified teacher 
should avoid. The true teacher must think and 
live, and give of his thoughts and life as his class 
can take. The Sunday-school already has a text- 



Conclusion 219 

book, which children easily learn to love, namely 
the Bible. An educational course of study in the 
Bible would leave the teacher as free as teachers 
of secular history and literature are to choose just 
what details they wish to emphasize. For in- 
stance, if the first class above the infant school 
were given an edition of Genesis, in separate book 
form, or even in two or three little volumes, with 
a few omissions, but these carefully indicated, and 
with perhaps illustrations and notes, the teacher 
might be left free to use his discretion as to the 
weekly lessons. 

The following course of study will serve to il- 
lustrate the kind of work the Sunday-school 
should encourage. It is based on a three-term 
season in the belief that children enjoy frequent 
changes and that Christmas and Easter make 
natural divisions for terms of about ten or twelve 
lessons each. It gives the Messianic theme in- 
creasing emphasis as the child grows older. While 
leaving the teacher at liberty to have isolated texts 
committed to memory, it requires the child, during 
that period when he memorizes easily, to learn 
some sixteen to twenty or more of the most ele- 
vating passages literature contains, and this on a 
variety of themes and with less work than is re- 
quired by the golden-text plan. 



220 Sunday-School Movements 



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1224 Sunday-School Movements 

The portions of Scripture appointed to be mem- 
orized are all such as can be appropriately woven 
into the general exercises of the Sunday-school. 
This should not be overlooked, for the use of 
selections adds greatly to the facility and interest 
in learning them. The six selections from the 
Psalms, and the three from St. Luke, are espe- 
cially fitted to be sung or chanted as anthems. 
The Lord's Prayer, if repeated every Sunday, need 
never be recited. The Beatitudes should be used 
as responses, the leader saying the first part of 
each and the children responding the why. This 
avoids the routine w^ork of remembering the order. 
The few remaining selections can be used in a 
variety of ways as recitations or responsive read- 
ings. 

Some denominations may at first think that this 
course does not provide for enough doctrinal and 
denominational teaching. But denominational 
doctrines are supposed to be drawn from the Bible. 
If this is the case a thorough course in the Bible 
gives the teacher opportunity to introduce such 
teachings. It may be of interest to know that the 
writer has already planned its combination with 
the teachings of one denomination and found the 
result highly satisfactory. 

In the same way biblical geography and orien- 
tal customs should not be treated as a discon- 
nected subject, but should be kept in the closest 
possible connection with the Bible work. The 
above course is not too hurried to allow a fairly 



Conclusion 225 

full treatment of such matters. Schools might 
spend some of the money now used for lesson 
papers for maps, instructive illustrations, and 
models. Great care, however, should be taken 
in the use of such helps lest the children substi- 
tute the memory of the help for the fuller picture 
which the imagination should form. Models es- 
pecially should not be kept in constant view of 
the children, but should only be used to start their 
mental conceptions on a correct basis. 

With work done in the careful way suggested, 
and by a teacher so qualified that each lesson be- 
comes correlated with the child's entire life and 
knowledge, there is no need in extending the 
Sunday-school session beyond an hour and a half, 
or at most two hours. Obviously this does not 
apply to schools where intellectual and moral 
teaching must be to any great extent included. 
It applies to the Sunday-school of children who 
are provided for by good schools and homes. 

The division of time should be something as 
follows: The opening exercises should not ex- 
ceed ten minutes. A period of forty-five minutes 
should then be given to uninterrupted class work. 
For the younger classes this should be definitely 
divided into two periods, say a period of fifteen 
or twenty minutes for memory work, Bible geog- 
raphy, or more especial Church teachings, and 
then a period of thirty or at least twenty-five 
minutes for direct Bible study. Five minutes 
should close the Sunday-school proper and allow 



226 Sunday-School Movements 

the children to take their places for a service, or 
better still to pass into the church. This service, 
as already suggested, should be conducted by the 
trained superintendent, whether minister or edu- 
cator, though it would be an advantage, if this 
superintendent be not the regular preacher of the 
church, to have the preacher present at least once 
a month. The older children, that is, those in the 
upper department, or over about fourteen years 
of age, should use the entire study period of forty- 
five minutes for Bible work. They might also 
attend the half-hour Sunday-school service only 
once a month, perhaps the Sundays that the min- 
ister is present, and use those periods the other 
Sundays for Church history, or some such line 
of less biblical sacred study. 

Part V 

It still remains a problem how to obtain suit- 
ably qualified workers, and how to bring those 
children who most need religious teaching within 
the reach of the Sunday-school. This is rapidly 
becoming a more and more pressing question. 
Ingathering by house-to-house visitation, which is 
the plan of the International Convention, is good 
as far as it goes, but it cannot keep pace wifh 
our growing population. Efforts to secure truly 
qualified workers have been few and individual, 
or at best local, while attempts to qualify those 
already engaged in Sunday-school work can no 



Conclusion 227 

longer satisfy the demands of our national educa- 
tional system. 

This condition of affairs has become so serious 
that it seems almost necessary for the state to take 
action in the matter. Is the Church in need of 
some such external pressure? What if the state 
should say that after a specified year, wherever 
a Sunday-school exists which is maintained ac- 
cording to certain standards, and conducted by a 
superintendent qualified according to certain re- 
quirements, attendance upon such Sunday-school 
will be as compulsory as attendance on the day- 
school ; though where two or more such Sunday- 
schools exist parents may choose for their children 
as in the matter of day-schools? Such a law 
might incite the different denominations to pre- 
pare their ministers for such work or to secure 
the services of qualified educators. In small 
towns denominations of similar teachings might 
see more clearly the desirability of united efforts. 

Still we must confess that it would be better 
if the desired change could come more heartily 
from the Church. Is there no national function- 
ary of education that can rouse the Church to an 
appreciation of the importance of this matter? 
Ministers could do infinitely more in this line 
than they now do. 

Earnest and religious young women, graduates 
of good schools, perhaps even of colleges, sit by 
their windows reading light literature, or pass 



228 Sunday-School Movements 

their mornings engaged in some trivial work. 
Their parents object to their *' slumming." They 
are troubled and depressed at not finding a work 
which calls forth the powers they have been culti- 
vating. They long for something worth grap- 
pling with. The minister calls. Why does he not 
drop the weak topics of formal conversation, and 
the annoying topics of conventional religiousness ? 
If his interest is in the problem of religious in- 
struction he can see in such women great possibil- 
ities. He can direct them in such studies as will 
fit them for the high and noble work for which 
they unconsciously long. Alore than that, these 
young women have brothers and friends, young 
men of good education and noble powers, men 
who have influence over boys, men who have not 
found the satisfactory place to go on Sunday after- 
noons, men who would be glad to find that their 
services are wanted by a minister who will guide 
and appreciate their efforts. Nor should the min- 
ister be lax in his demands upon these young 
people. They respect and enjoy the work more 
when it is made serious, and when it supplies the 
longing for responsibility and self-sacrificing 
service. 

Another great opportunity which most minis- 
ters neglect to use in the interest of religious 
training is the pulpit. Few, even of those who 
make some of their sermons instructive, will leave 
their general themes of exhortation for a serious, 
practical and earnest presentation of the Sunday- 



Conclusion 



229 



school problem. To call for more Sunday-school 
teachers every fall is a monotonous duty, and it is 
felt as a monotonous appeal. A change can be 
made. It might begin in theological seminaries. 
The young men there might be taught the deplor- 
able condition of religious teaching^ and sent out 
aglow with determination to improve matters. 
When in charge of parishes, they might treat this 
subject as part of the now favorite topic, — church 
attendance. Church attendance undoubtedly does 
something towards making our country a God- 
fearing land, but the religious training of the 
young must ever remain the normal means of 
securing church attendance, and the natural as 
well as biblical method of producing a nation 
where all are " kings and priests unto God." 

When the minister has, by repeated and prac- 
tical talks on the subject, convinced the people of 
a real need, a need which affects them and their 
children, a need which is as vital as life itself and 
as deep as the immortal nature of man, then there 
opens before him still another opportunity. He 
now leads his congregation in prayer for the whole 
world, for the Church in general, for his own 
congregation, for the clergy, for the national 
rulers, for our Congress when asse^nbled, for 
prisoners and captives, for the sick and afflicted, 
and even for those who cross the Atlantic. Is not 
this question of the religious training of our chil- 
dren worthy of a place in our congregational pray- 
ers? Can we expect the people of a nation to 



230 Sunday-School Movements 

work together with unity and strength in a great 
and holy cause for which they do not pray ? 

But it is less the object of this conclusion to 
discuss the means of bringing about a change in 
Sunday-school ideals and methods than to empha- 
size the importance of such a change and to indi- 
cate the direction which it should take. Accord- 
ing to the standards of the Church the Sunday- 
school is at present not a success. According to 
our national standards of education it is even less 
a success. It is largely under the management 
and influence of those who have but slight or one- 
sided training for the work. Yet it is the most 
important work intrusted to the Church, and the 
most holy work under the influence of the State. 
It demands the united efforts of both. 



Appendices 



232 Sunday-School Movements 



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238 Sunday-School Movements 



APPENDIX III 

Denominational Representation of the In- 
ternational Lesson Committee* 

Merriberg. Denominations. United States. Canada. Total. 

3 Baptists (all) 4,100,000 75,000 4,175,000 

1 Congregational 600,000 7,000 607,000 

1 Christians and Disciples 1,034,000 1,034,000 

1 Episcopal (all) 636,000 162,000 798,000 

1 Lutheran (both) 1,400,000 16,000 1,416,000 

3 Methodist (all) 5,450,000 313,000 5,662,000 

3 Presbyterian (all) 1,500,000 189,000 1,689,000 

1 Reformed (both) 341,000 341,000 

1 United Brethren 263,000 263,000 

15 15,324,000 &61,000 15,986,000 

All other Denominations 733,000 27,000 760,000 

15 Total Membership 16,057,000 688,000 16,745,000 

Each member of the lesson committee represents over 1,100,- 
000 church members. Each member from the United States 
Represents over 1,200,000 church members. 



» Taken from the report of the EUghth International Sunday- 
School Convention, p. 258. 



Appendices 



239 



APPENDIX IV 

International Lessons 

Relative number of lessons assigned to the vari- 
ous books of the Bible in the years 1873 to 
1899, inclusive. 



Genesis 

Exodus 

Leviticus 

Numbers 

Deuteronomy 

Joshua 

Jddges 

Jluth 


.80 
.50 
.13 
.14 
..6 
.34 
.13 
..4 
.76 
.92 
.28 
..9 
.14 
..7 
..6 
.27 
.24 
..5 
.0) 


Isaiah 

Jeremiah 

(Lamentations. 

Ezekiel 

Daniel 

Hosea 

Joel 

Amos 


...37 
...11 

..0) 
....6 
...21 
....2 
....1 

...4 


S.Luke 

S.John 

Acts 

Bomans 

1 and 3 Corin. . . 

Galatians 

Ephesians 

Philippians 


.137 
.113 
.165 
..15 
..19 
...4 
...5 
4 


1 and 2 Samuel... 
1 and 2 Kings 


(Obadiah 

Jonah 


...0) 
....5 


Colossians 

1 and 2 Thessa. , 
1 and 2 Timothy. 
Titus 


...3 

5 


1 and 2 Chron. . . . 
Ezra 


Micah 

Nahum 

(Habakkuk 

(Zephaniah 

Haggai 


....1 
....1 
...0) 
...0) 
2 


...6 
1 


Nehemiah 

Esther 

Job 


(Philemon 

Hebrews 

James 


..0) 
...5 

7 


Psalms 

Proverbs 

Ecclesiastes 

(Song of Solomon 


Zechariah 

Malachi 

S.Matthew 

S.Mark 


...4 
....5 
..130 
..115 


land 2 Peter 

1 John 

(Jude 

Revelation 


...4 
...4 
..0) 
..11 



From The Independent^ — Feb. 4, 1897 — Article 
on the Sunday-School and its Work — ^by A. F. 
Schauffler, D.D. — ^p. 3, 



240 Sunday-School Movements 

APPENDIX V 
The Minute* 

Which was made the basis of agreement fof^. 
the formation of the Bible Study Union: 

" Gratefully recognizing the service rendered 
in Bible study by the International course of 
Sunday-school lessons, we think that there is 
abundant evidence that the time has fully come 
for the organization of a course of lessons so 
framed as to promote a systematic study of the 
Bible on some graded system, with the aim of 
securing comprehensive instruction in the facts 
and teachings of the Bible, with constant refer- 
ence to the development of Christian character. 

" Such a system must recognize at least three 
departments in the Sunday-school : a primary de- 
partment, including pupils up to eight or ten years 
of age; an intermediate department, including 
pupils from eight or ten to eighteen or twenty ; and 
adult classes, including pupils from eighteen or 
twenty upwards ; and separate Scripture courses 
should be selected for each of these three depart- 
ments; these departments to be further graded 
as experience may indicate. 

" Such a system may properly recognize the 

* Taken from the report of the meeting of the organi- 
zation of the Bible Study Union, p. 4. 



Appendices 241 

Church Year by an alternative lesson adapted for 
each of the more important seasons of that years, 
and by a liturgical or other service or services 
with responsive readings, for the use of such 
schools as may wish to adopt them. 

" We approve the general principles embodied 
in what are known as the ' Outline Inductive 
Bible Studies,' prepared by the Rev. Erastus 
Blakeslee, and published by The Bible Study 
Publishing Company." 



242 Sunday-School Movements 

APPENDIX VI 
Constitution of the Bible Study Union 

Article I. Name. This organization shall 
be called The Bible Study Union. 

Article II. Object. Its object shall be to 
promote improved methods of Bible study. 

Article III. Basis of Organization. As em- 
bodying the principles of Bible study which we 
approve, we hereby adopt, as the basis of this 
organization, the Blakeslee Graded Lessons, to 
be enlarged and modified as may hereafter seem 
best, and to be known as the Bible Study Union 
Lessons. 

Article IV. Members. The members of the 
Bible Study Union on record prior to November 
1st, 1893, the signers of the call for the meeting 
at which this Constitution is adopted, and any 
persons present at said meeting who approve of 
its object and basis of organization, as stated in 
Articles II and III, are hereby declared to be 
original members of The Bible Study Union, as 
now organized. Others may become members by 
signing this Constitution. Membership in this 
Union involves no pecuniary liability. 

Article V. Officers. The officers shall be, a 
President, fifteen or more Vice Presidents, and a 



Appendices 243 

Secretary and Treasurer, whose duties shall be 
those usually pertaining to such offices. There 
also shall be a Lesson Committee and an Execu- 
tive Committee, as provided in Articles VI and 
VII of this Constitution. The first board of these 
officers shall be elected at the meeting at which 
this Constitution is adopted. Subsequent elec- 
tions shall be held at each annual meeting, except 
as hereinafter provided. 

Article VI. Lesson Committee. The Les- 
son Committee shall consist of two classes of per- 
sons, viz.: First, sixteen persons elected by the 
Union at one of its regular meetings. Those 
members chosen at the first election shall be di- 
vided into four classes, to serve one, two, three, 
and four years, respectively; the four members 
elected annually thereafter shall serve for the 
term of four years ; and no person who has served 
a full term of four years shall be eligible for re- 
election until after the expiration of a year from 
the close of such service. 

The second class shall consist of the Editorial 
Board. This Board shall include, first, one or 
more office editors; secondly, special editors, of 
whom at least one shall be a specialist in the Old 
Testament, and one a specialist in the New Testa- 
ment; thirdly, denominational editors, of whom 
one or more may be appointed in behalf of each 
denominational or other publishing house issuing 
denominational editions of The Bible Study 
Union lessons. The first Editorial Board shall 



244 Sunday-School Movements 

be elected by the Union at the meeting at which 
this Constitution is adopted ; thereafter members 
of said Board shall be appointed by a two-thirds 
vote of the Lesson Committee present and voting 
at any meeting, notice of the nomination of such 
members having been given in the call for the 
m.eeting. Members of the Lesson Committee 
who are such by reason of being on the Editorial 
Board shall continue to be members only so long 
as they continue on the Board. 

No one except the denominational editors shall 
be responsible for any denominational teachings 
or peculiarities which shall appear in denomina- 
tional editions. 

The Committee chosen at the time of the adop- 
tion of this Constitution is authorized to fill up 
its own number, exclusive of the Editorial Board. 
The Committee is authorized to fill vacancies oc- 
casioned by death or resignation, until the next 
meeting of the Union. 

It shall be the duty of the Lesson Committee 
to provide a general plan for the Lessons to be 
issued under the auspices of the Union, to arrange 
the several courses of study, to determine the or- 
der in which they shall be issued, and to make 
such other arrangements as may be necessary for 
preparing and publishing the Lessons. 

Article VIL Executive Committee. An 
Executive Committee of seven members shall be 
chosen at each annual meeting. They shall have 
charge of all business connected with the Union, 



Appendices 245 

except that which is provided for in previous ar- 
ticles ; shall arrange for its meetings, and act gen- 
erally in its behalf. 

Article VIII. Meetings. There shall be an 
annual meeting of this Union, at such time and 
place as may be determined by the Executive 
Committee. Other meetings may be appointed by 
the Executive Committee at its discretion. 

Article IX. Local Unions. The Executive 
Committee is directed to encourage the formation 
of State and other local Bible Study Unions, with 
a view to disseminate, as widely as possible, the 
principles on which this Union is based; and to 
promote, in Sunday-schools and elsewhere, the 
use of the Lessons bearing its name. 

Article X. Amendments. This Constitution 
may be altered or amended at any regular meeting 
of the Union, provided notice of the proposed 
amendment has been given in the call for the 
meeting. 



246 Sunday-School Movements 



BIBLIOGAPHY 

The following bibliography contains only such 
books and papers as contribute historical material. 
The order is roughly arranged according to top- 
ics, excepting that books or papers once named 
are omitted under subsequent topics. 

1. Early American Sunday-Schools. 

Sunday Schools, — n.n. — ^Article in American 
Cyclopaedia, 1863. 

Sunday Schools, — Edwin W. Rice. — Schaff- 
Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, — 
1891. 3rd revised edition. 

Sunday-Schools, — M. H. Williams. — A Con- 
cise Cyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge— (not 
consulted). 

Sunday-Schools, — H. C. Trumbull. — Concise 
Dictionary of Religious Knowledge (Jackson's) 
— (not consulted). 

Sunday-Schools, &c., — D. P. K. — Cyclopae- 
^dia of Biblical Literature, — 1881. (McClintock & 
Strong.) 

Sunday-Schools, — H. C. Trumbull. — ^John- 
""^son's Universal Cyclopaedia, — 1895. — New edi- 
tion. 
,.^-~ The Sabbath-School Index, — R. G. Pardee. — 
Philadelphia, 1868. 
^ Historic View of Sunday-Schools, — E. H. By- 
ington.— Cong. Q., 7:17,— Jan. 1865. 



Bibliography 247 

''' Universalist Origin of American Sunday- 
Schools, — Rev. Richard Eddy. — Univ. Q., 39: 
448.,— Oct. 1882. 

<-* Growth of the Sunday-School in the Methodist 
Churchy — J. M. Freeman. — Meth. Q., 31 :399, — 
July, 1871. 

Origin of the Sunday-School System, — n.n. — 
New York, — 1851. (Annual Report of Sunday- 
School Union of Meth. Epis. Ch.) 

-^- New England Primer, — n.n. — Boston, — 1777, 
— reprint 1844. (Shows religious character of 
early New England education.) 

— - The Sunday-School Library, — A. E. Dunning. 
— Boston, — 1883. (Gives historic sketch.) 

-" Brief History of Sunday-Schools, — J. F. Bing- 
ham. — Buffalo, — 1867. 

History of Sunday-Schools, — Lewis G. Pray. 
— Boston, — 1847. 

The Rise & Progress of Sunday-Schools, — 
John Carroll Power. — New York, — 1863. (Ex- 
cellent.) 

,— Sunday-Schools and the American Sunday- 
School Union, — n.n. — Amer. J. of Ed., — vol. 15, 
— Dec. 1865. (One of the fullest histories to 
date.) 

— The American Sunday School, — M. H. Hut- 
ton. — Presb. Q., 10:177, — Apr. 1889. 

II. The American Sunday-School Union. 

Reports of American Sunday-School Union, — 
Philadelphia. — Annual. 



248 Sunday-School Movements 

Missionary Work of the American Sunday- 
School Union, — n.n. — Phil., — n.d. — revised edi- 
tion. 

Student Missionaries, — n.n. — Phil., — n.d. — (A 
leaflet of instruction for Student Missionaries of 
The Amer. S.-S. Union.) 

A Fruitful Life, — B. Paxson Drury. — Phil., — 
Apr. 1897. (A life of the S.-s missionary 
Stephen Paxson.) 

The Story of My Lifc—B. W. Childlaw, D. D. 
— Phil., — 1890. (The Hfe of a missionary of the 
Amer. S.-S. U.) 

The Sunday-School Man in the South, — Rev. 
John McCullagh.— Phil.,— 1889. 

The Sunday-School World, — Phil., — monthly, 
— (one of the Union's best publications. See nos. 
for June & July, 1897 for hist, material.) 

The Sunday School Missionary, — PhiL, — 
monthly, — one of the Union's best publications. 
(See nos. for Nov. 1895, June 1897, & June 1899.) 

The Children's Friend, — W. Carus Wilson. — 
Phil., — ^Jan. 1824. 

The Child's Magazine, — Emory & Waugh. — 
Phil.,— July 1828. 

The Sunday-School Journal, — n.n. — Phil., — 

1832. (PubHshed weekly, beginning 1831. 
Shows early work of the Union.) 

Sunday School Teachers' Convention, — Phil., — 

1833. (A bound vol. of the answers to questions 
sent to S.-s. workers before the Convention held 
in Phil., May 22 & 23, 1832.) 



Bibliography 249 

The Teacher Taught,— -F. A. Packard— Phil, 
— 1830? (About the earliest book of importance 
on S.-s. teaching.) 

Design of the Books of the American Sunday- 
School Union, — n.n. — Boston Library — n.d. 
(Reprint from Biblical Repertory.) 

III. The National Convention System. 

Sunday School Times, — Phil. — (Origin and 
Progress of S. S. Conventions, by H. Clay Trum- 
bull, May 30, 1896; and other articles.) 

Reports of International S.-S. Conventions, — 
W. B. Jacobs, publisher. — Chicago, — especially 
1896 & 1899. 

The Modern Sunday School, — ^J. H. Vincent. 
— N. Y.,— 1887. 

The Trumpet Call, — Chicago. (Illinois State 
S. S. Convention, by W. B. Jacobs, June 1897; 
and other articles.) 

Proceedings of the Illinois State S.-S. Conven- 
tion, — Reported by J. C. Youker. — Chicago. 

Massachusetts S.-S. Association, — Circulars, 
&c. — 110 Boylston St., Boston. 

Sunday-School Manual, — Mass. S.-S. Assoc. — 
Boston, — 1895 ? 

Primary Workers' Manual, — Internat. Union 
Primary Sabbath S. Teachers. — Phil., — 1897. 

Silver Anniversary of t. N. Y. S.-S. Primary 
Union, — n.n. — New York,^ — 1896. (Contains 
Historical Sketch.) 



2^o Sunday-School Movements 

Year Books of t. N. Y. S.-S. Assoc, — New 
York. — (Booklet for 1874 gives origin as well as 
work.) 

IV. The Uniform or International Lesson 

System. 

The Lesson System, — Simeon Gilbert. — N. Y., 

-1879. 

Yale Lectures on the Sunday School, — H. Clay 
Trumbull.— Phil. 1888. 

Story of the International Lessons, — n.n. — 
Sunday School Record, — 1893. (A page of com- 
pact information, p. 16.) 

International Evangel, — St. Louis^ — (See es- 
pecially Feb. & May nos., 1895 ^^ Mass. Edi- 
tion.) 

Sunday School Work, — Ellis. — Ped. Sem., 
— ^June 1896. 

The Independent, — N. Y. — (The S.-S. & its 
Work, by A. F. Schauffler, Feb. 4, 1897; and 
other articles.) 

The Sunday School Quarterly, — A. F. Schauf- 
fler. — Boston, — Especially 3rd Q., 1893. (Also 
other " Teachers Editions " of Quarterlies.) 

The Sunday-School Quarterly, — F. N. Pelou- 
bet — Boston, — A variety of graded Os. for schol- 
ars. — ^Junior Q., by Mrs. M. G. Kennedy. 

Little Ones' Quarterly, — Miss Lucy Wheelock. 
— Boston. 

Pelouhet's Select Notes, — F. N. Peloubet, D.D. 
& M. A. Peloubet. — Boston. Annual vols. 



Bibliography 251 

V. Institutes and the Chautauqua Move- 

ment. 

Sunday-School Institutes and Normal Classes, 
— ^J. H. Vincent. — New York, — 1872. 

The Normal Class, — (a leaflet) Jesse L. Hurl- 
but, D.D.— New York,— n.d. 

"The Study", — (a quarterly) — New York, — 
(Small notes, as in no. for Jan. 1885, p. 2.) 

Revised Normal Lessons, — ^J. L. Hurlbut. — 
New York, — 1893? 

The Chautauqua Movement, — ^John H. Vin- 
cent. — Boston, — 1886. 

The Chautauqua System of Education (circu- 
lars), — n.ns. — Buffalo, N. Y. ; Syracuse, N. Y. ; 
&c. — n.ds. 

The Chautauquan, — T. L. Flood, editor. — Pa., 
— Monthly. 

VI. The Church and Sunday-School Work. 

The American Church History Series, — Edi- 
tors, Schaff & others. — ^^New York. 1894. 

Sunday Schools, — ^J. H. Blodgett. — Washing- 
ton, — 1898. (From report of U. S. Commis- 
sioner of Education.) 

A. Baptist. 

Massachusetts Baptist Anniversaries, — Annual 
reports from 1885. — Boston. (Also Mass. Bap- 
tist Conventions.) 



252 Sunday-School Movements 

The Watchman, "A Baptist Journal." — Bos- 
ton. (See no. for May 6, 1897 — vol. 78 no. 18.) 

Massachusetts Baptist Sunday School Associa- 
tion Bulletin, — W. W. Main? — Boston, — 1897? 

Periodicals, as " Two Years with Jesus," teach- 
ers' edition & scholars' edition. — Boston. 

Baptist editions of International Sunday- 
School Lessons, — Blackall, Wallace &c. — Helps 
& graded quarterlies. 

Southern Baptist Convention Series of Inter- 
national Lessons, — Nashville, Tenn. 

B. Congregationalist. 

A Brief Historical Sketch of the Cong. S.-S. 
& Puh'g Society, — n.n. — Boston & Chicago, — 
Jan. 1894. 

Annual Reports, Cong. S.-S. & Puh'g Sod., — 
Boston & Chicago. 

Congregational S.-S. Superintendents* Union, 
— n.n., a report or statement. — Boston, — 1896 & 
other years. 

The Pilgrim Sunday-School Missionary, — 
quarterly. — Boston & Chicago, — 1888 & follow- 
ing. 

The Pilgrim Teacher, — editor M. C. Hazard. 
— Boston & Chicago. (8 or 10 pp. on each In- 
ternat. S.-S. lesson, illustrations, editorials &c.) 

C. Episcopal. 

The Church Sunday-School, — Van De Water 
& others— Ch. R. — July 1889. 



Bibliography 253 

The American Church Sunday-School Maga- 
sine, — editors Thomas, Stone & Newton. — Phil., 
— 1880 & following. (Account of S.-S. Assoc, 
of Diocese of Penn. in no. for Feb. 1895.) 

Church Sunday-School Lessons, of the Dioce- 
san Committee, — different series, as the Whit- 
taker by G. W. Shinn & the Jacobs by R. N. 
Thomas. 

Catechisms, — See Prayer Book — Also James 
Pott & Co., New York. (About 100 books & 
catechisms in circulation.) 

D. Latter-Day Saint 

Sunday-School Work, — Karl G. Maeser — Salt 
Lake City, — 1892. 

Latter-day Saints' Sunday-School Treatise, — 
n.n. — Salt Lake City, 1898, second edition. 

Proceedings of the First Sunday-School Con- 
vention, of the . . . Latter-day Saints, — Ar- 
thur Winter & Leo Hunsaker — Salt Lake City, — 
1899. 

Juvenile Instructor, — editor G. Q. Cannon. — 
Salt Lake City, — Historic Review of the Sunday- 
School Movement in no. for Nov. i, 1899. 

E, Lutheran. 

Augsburg Sunday - Schoo I Pap ers, — ( The 
Augsburg S. S. Teacher, The Augsburg Lesson 
Leaf &cj~Phil. 



254 Sunday-School Movements 

F. Methodist. 

The Sunday-School Union, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, — J. M. Freeman — New York, 
—Mch. 1880. 

Annual Reports of the S.-S. Union of the 
Meth. Epis. C/i.,— New York,— 1847 & following. 

Berean Lesson Helps, Quarterlies &c., — editor 
J. L. Hurlbut. — New York. (Also a variety of 
S.-S. supplies at Eaton & Mains, N. Y.) 

Sunday-School Magazine, International Les- 
son Papers &c. — Pub'g House of the M. E. Ch. 
South, — Nashville, Tenn. 

G, Presbyterian. 

Westminster Sabbath - School Helps, — Presb. 
Board of Pub. & S.-S. Work,— Phil., N. Y., Chi- 
cago, St. Louis. 

Sunday-School Monthly Bible Study, — editor 
McKamy, — Nashville, Tenn. (Cumberland 
Presb. Pub'g House.) 

The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, 
(Containing the Confession of Faith, the Cate- 
chisms, Discipline &c.) — n.n. — Philadelphia, — 
n.d. 

H. Reformed Church, 

The Reformed Church in America, — Demarest 
— New York, — 1889, 4th revised edition. 

Reports of General Synod of the Reformed 



Bibliography 255 

Church in America, & report of S.-S. Conven. 
1899.)? — New York. 

Triennial Reports of the Sunday-School Board 
of the Reformed Church in the United States, — 
Lebanon, Pa. 

Heidelberg Sunday-School Helps, — (7 lesson 
helps, graded. 5 illustrated papers.) — New 
York. 

Heidelberg Catechism, — Zacharias Ursinus — 
New York, — n.d. (original 1563.) (Also other 
catechisms — Board of Pub. of Ref. Ch. in Amer.) 

/. Roman Catholic. 

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, — 3rd Plen- 
ary Council of Baltimore — New York, — 1885. 
(Also other catechisms.) 

/. Unitarian. 

Sixty Years of the Unitarian Sunday-School 
Society, — H. G. Spaulding. — Boston? — 1887. 

Annual Reports of the Unitarian Sunday- 
School Society, — Boston. 

Lesson Books & Manuals,— ^o^ton, — (a great 
variety.) 

K. Universalist. 

Universalist Register, — Boston. 

The Christian Leader, — (July 17, 1884, — gives 
Universalist origin of " Children's Sunday.") 

Sunday-School Helper, monthly, — editor O. F. 
Safford — Boston, — 1869 & following. 



256 Sunday-School Movements 

VII. The Bible Study Union. 

Sunday-School Bible Study, — E. Blakeslee. — 
Andover R., — Oct. 1890. Also S.-S. Instruction, 
— E. Blakeslee. — And. R., Dec. 1891. 

An Advanced Step in Sunday-School Bible 
Study, — E. Blakeslee. — Boston, — 1891 . 

Adaptation versus Uniformity, — E. Blakeslee. 
— Boston, — 1892. 

Report of Meeting for Organization of Bible 
Study Union. — Boston, — 1893. 

Statement of the Lesson Committee of the B. 
S. U. — Boston, — 1894. 

A Comparative View of the International and 
the B. S. U. Lessons on the Life of Christ, — Bos- 
ton, — 1894. 

Facts and Principles, — E. Blakeslee. — Boston, 
—1896. 

Sunday-School Bible Study, — E. Blakeslee. — 
Independent, — Feb. 4, 1897. 

Graded Lessons, — E. Blakeslee ? — Boston, — '99. 

Lesson Books — Life of Christ, 7 grades & 2 
teachers' aids, — Boston. 

Lesson Books — Peter, Paul & John, 7 grades & 
2 teachers* aids. — Boston. 

Lesson Books — Great Men of Israel, 7 grades 
& 2 teachers' aids. — Boston. 

Lesson Books — Gospel History, 7 grades & 2 
teachers' aids. — Boston. 

Lesson Books — Hist. Apostolic Church, 6 
grades and 2 teachers' aids. — Boston. 



Bibliography 257 

Lesson Books — Old Testament Hist., 6 grades 
& I teachers' aids. — Boston. 

Blakeslee Lessons, — editors D. H. Greer & 
Geo. H. McGrew. — Boston, — Episcopal edition. 

An Outline Handbook of The Life of Christ, — 
Stevens & Burton. — Boston, — 1894. 

VIII. Miscellaneous. 
A. The American Society of Religious Education. 

The American Society of Religious Education, 
(annual) n.n., — Washington. 

Journal of Religious Education, — J. E. Gilbert 
(sec). — Washington, D. C., — a quarterly. 

Bible Reader's Guide, — J. E. Gilbert. — Wash- 
ington, — n.d. (ist yr. — Patiiarchs & Kings; 2nd 
yr. — Kings & Prophets ; 3rd yr. — Christ & Apos- 
tles.) 

Normal Lesson Manuals, &c. — J. E. Gilbert. — 
Washington, — n.d. 

B. The Foreign Sunday-School Association. 

Sunday-Schools Abroad, — n.n. — Reprint from 
the Independent, — n.d. (Full account of origin 
of F. S.-S. A.) 

Annual Reports of the Foreign Sunday-School 
Association, — n.n. Brooklyn. 

Christie's Old Organ — Mrs. Walton. — New 
York, — n.d. (See also other books translated & 
distributed by the Association.) 



INDEX 



Note— Roman numbers refer to chapters; Arabic numbers refer 

to pages. 



Adams, Blackmer & Lyons 

(firm) IV 80 
Africa III 60, VII 163 
Aids — for teachers and 

scholars (See Books) 
Aim of education IX 186- 

191 
Aim of the Sunday-school 

I 23, II 26, 27, 38, VI 134. 

IX 173-186, 190 
Akron, M. E. S.-S. U. V 

98 
Aloany III 56 
American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society VI 116 
American Bible Society II 

34 

American Church S.-s. In- 
stitute VI 122, 123 

American Home Mission- 
ary Society VI 120 

American Institute of Sa- 
cred Literature VIII 167 

American Magazine VI 134 

American Society of Relig- 
ious Education VIII 168, 
169 

American Sunday- School 
Union I 25, II, III 55, 
56, IV T7, V loi, VI 118, 
VIII 164, 166 

American Tract Society II 
34 



American Unitarian Asso- 
ciation VI 148 
Analytical lesson notes IV 

80 
Anniversary Institute, 

Meth. V 97 
Arnold, Thomas IX 197 
Asbury, Bp. I 21, VI 134 
Assembly catechism I 22 
Assembly, Chautauqua V 

99-106 
Assembly Normal Union 

V 108, 109 
Associations, — State II 46, 

III 74 
Atlanta, Georgia III ^2, 73 



B 



Babylon V 97 

Baird, Robt., D.D. II 44 

Baldwin University, Ohio 

V III 
Ballantyne, Richard VI 128 
Baltimore III 61, VI 146, 

151 
" Banner " townships III 

72 

Baptist General Tract So- 
ciety VI 116 

Baptists V loi, VI 114-118, 
152 

Barnard V 92 

Barrows, Dr. J. H. VIII 
167 



359 



a6o 



Index 



Beecher, Dr. Lyman I 24 
Beecher, Henry Ward IX 

205 
Bellamy, Dr. I 20 
Berlin VIII 171 
Bethlehem, Conn. I 20 
Bethune, Dr. and Mrs. I 

22, II 29 

Bible & Tract Society VI 

136 
Bible Normal College, 

Springfield, Mass. V in 
Bible Readers' Union VIII 

169 
Bible Schools VI 124, 125 
Bible Society, Friends VI 

125 

Bible Students' Reading 

Guild VIII 167 
Bible Study Publishing Co., 

Boston VII 155 
Bible Study Union VII 
Bible Study Union Lessons 

VI 124, VII 157-163, IX 

217 
Biblical geography V 95, 

97, 98, IX 124, 125 
Biblical instruction I 20, 

23, II 27, 34, IV ^7, V 
III, VI 113, ii7» 129, VII 
153, IX 175, 176, 218-224 

Biblical museums V 97-99, 

VI 139 
Bickwell, Tho. W. Ill 62 
Blackhouse, Hannah C. & 

Jonathan VI 125 
Blake, S. H. Ill 62 
Blakeslee, E. VII 153, 155 
Bliss, P. P. Ill 59 
Books, early S.-s. I 22, II 

27, ZZ, 34, 35. VI 135 
Books, library II 36, 37, 

VI 118, VIII 164, 165, 

171 
Boston, Mass. Ill T>i, VI 

117, 121, 147, 150, VII 

156, 157 



Boston Society for the 
Moral & Religious In- 
struction of the Poor II 
29 
Boston Sunday-School So- 
ciety VI 147 
Brandywine, Battle of I 20 
Brooklyn III 56, VIII 170 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew 

VI 123 
Brown, Alexander II 51 
Buffalo, N. Y. V 96 
Burma VII 163 
Burton, E. DeW. VII 161 
Byers, M. D. Ill 7^ 



Calcutta II 43 

Canada II 51, III 60, 62, 

66, 72, IV 83, VI 124, 132 
Cannon, Elder G. Q. VI 

129 
Capen, S. B. Ill 73 
Cards II 34, VI 116, VII 

158, 162 
Carey, Matthew II 26, VI 

150 
Catechetical instruction I 

18, 20, 21, VI 114, 117, 

124, 132, 140, 143, 145, IX 

217, 218 
Catechism, Heidelberg VI 

142, 143, IX 218 
Catechisms, Lutheran IX 

218 
Catechisms, Episcopal VI 

124, IX 218 
Catechisms, Westminster I 

22, VI 141, 142, IX 218 
Ceylon II 43 
Channing V 91, 93, VI 148 
Charleston, S. C. I 21 
Chautauqua III 67, V 99- 

III, VI 140, IX 195, 196 
Chautauqua College of Lib- 
eral Arts V 105 



Index 



Q.61 



Chautauqua Lit. & Sci. Cir- 
cle III 70, V 104-106 
Chautauqua Normal Union 

V 106, 109-111 
Chautauqua Schools V 104 
Chautauqua S.-S. Normal 

Department V 106-108 
Chautauqua Teachers' Re- 
treat V 104 
Chelsea, Mass. VI 151 
Chicago II 49, HI 65, IV 

80, 81, V 94, 95, VI 149 
Chicago S.-S. Union IV 

78, 80, 81 
Children's Sunday VI 151, 

China II 43, VII 163, VIII 

172, IX 187 
Chinese missionary II 47 
Christian Endeavor III 69 
Christmas VII 163, IX 219 
Church of the Epiphany, 

Phil. VI 122 
Church of the Holy Apos- 
tles, Phil. VI 122 
Church of the Pilgrims, 

Brooklyn VIII 170 
Church Sunday-schools I 

22, VI, IX 194 
Cincinnati II 30, VI 126, 127 
Cincinnati Wesleyan Fe- 
male College V III 
Cities II 47, III 57, 76 
City S.-S. Unions III 76 
Civil War II 51, HI S8, 

VI 119 

Clarke, Dr. E. H. VI 148 
Colportage VI 116 
Colquitt, Alfred H. Ill 62 
Columbia Star VI 105 
Columbus, Ohio V 97, VI 

139 
Comenius VI 114 
Confirmation classes VI 

127, 132 
Congregational Board of 

Publication VI 119 



Congregational Publishing 
Society VI 119 

Congregational Sabbath- 
School & Publishing So- 
ciety VI 119 

Congregational Sunday- 
School & Publishing So- 
ciety III 71, VI 118, 120 

Congregational S.-S. Su- 
perintendents' Union VI 
120 

Congregationalists I 19, 
VI 114, 118-121 

Connecticut III 56, 70 

Connecticut Code I 17 

Conventions II 42, 48-50, 
III, IV 81, V 94, VI 121, 
122, 124, 132, 152, VIII 
169 

Conventions, county III 
53, 56. 

Conventions, International, 
1st III 61 

Conventions, International, 
2nd, 3rd and 4th III 62, 
IV 84 

Conventions, International, 
5th and 6th III 64, IV 84 

Conventions, International, 
7th III 64, 68, 72, IV 84, 

87 
Conventions, International, 

8th III 64, 73, IV 85, 88 
Conventions, International, 

9th III 68, 73, 74 
Conventions, National, ist 

1148, m 53, 1778 

Conventions, National, 2nd 

III 55 

Conventions, National, 3rd 

III 58 
Conventions, National, 4th 

III 59, 60, IV 82 
Conventions, National, 5th 

III 60, 61, IV 83 
Conventions, State III 56- 

58, 66, IV 78, V 96 



262 



Index 



Conventions, World's III 68 

GDok Co. S.-S. Teachers' 
Convention V 95 

Cook, J. P. VIII 170 

Cornell College, Iowa V 
III 

Council Bluffs, Iowa II 45 

Council Hill V 95 

County Normal Superin- 
tendents III 75 

Crafts, Mrs. Wilbur III 

63, 64 
Crenshaw, Thomas I 21 
Crerar, John II 52 
Crystal Palace III 56 



Davis, Noah VI 115 
Day-schools I 19, II 26, 
36, V 91, VI 132, 141, 
144, VIII 168, IX 176, 
178, 180 
Deseret S. S. Musical Un- 
ion VI 131 
Detroit III 59, V 95 
Detroit District V 5 
Dewey, Dr. John IX 17 
Dickinson College, Penn. 

V III 
Dike, Samuel W. Ill 71 
Diocese of Pennsylvania 
S.-S. Association VI 122 
Diplomas III 75, V 106, 
107, no, VI 139, IX 215 
Discipline, The I 22, VI 

133, 134. 137 
Duncan, W. A. Ill 69-71 
Dunker, S.-s. I 20 



Easter VI 132, VII 163, 

IX 209, 219 
Eddy, Richard VI 150 
Eggleston. E. Ill 59, 60, 

IV 78, 80-82 



Egypt III 60, V 97 
England III 60, V 109, 

VI 125, VIII 166 
English Sunday-schools I 

22, 24 
Ephrata, Penn. I 20 
Episcopalians I 22, V in, 
i VI 114, 121-124, 132, VII 
' 163 
Establishment of S.-ss, II 

38-42, 44-47, 52, III 67, 

VI 116, 120, 132, 135, 136, 

141, 150, IX 104 
Evangelical Society II 28' 
Evening S.-ss. II 28 
Exercises VI 128, IX 199- 

208, 225 



Fair Point, Chautauqua V 

99 
Farwell, J. V. Ill 59 
Female Union Society II 

29 
Ferguson, Katy I 21 
Fergusson, Mrs. M. H. Ill 

68 
Festivals IX 209-211 
Field Superintendent III 

66 
Field Workers III 66, 67- 

76 
Field Workers' Conference 

III 67, 68, 73 
Field Workers' Depart- 
ment III 73 
First-day schools VI 124 
First-Day or S.-S. Society 

I 25, II 26, 38. VI ISO 
Fisher, George P. VII 156 
Foreign Missions II 43 
Foreign S.-S. Association 

VIII 169-172 
France IV 84, V 109, VIII 

170 . 

Freeport, 111. V 94, 95 



Index 



126' 



Frelinghuysen, Theodore 

HI 54 
Friends VI 124-126 



Galena District Convention 

V 94, VI 138 
Gallaudet, Dr. T. H. II 33 
General Assembly (Presb.) 

II 48, III 53, VI 141 
General Conference 

(Meth.) V 97, VI 135, 

136, 138 
General Conference 

(L.-D. Saints) VI 130 
General Convention 

(Univ.) VI 151 
General Synod VI 143 
Germany VIII 171 
Gillett, P. G. Ill 60 
Gloucester VI 151 
Golden Text IV 79, 85, 

IX 219 
Gospel Meetings II 45 
Grace Church, N. C. VI 

123 
Graded S.-ss. VI 128, 131, 

145, 146, 148, VII 154-161 
Graham, Isabella I 21, II 

29 
Great Britain I 22, II 40, 

III 58, IV 83, 89 
Greece II 43, V 97, IX 203 
Green, John C II 52 
Greer, Dr. David H. Vli 

156, 163 

H 

Half-Price Home Library 

II 36 
Hall, Willard III 55 
Hammond, H. L. IV 80 
Hanover Co., Va. I 21 
Harper, Dr. W. R. V 105, 

VIII 167 
Harris, John G. Ill 65 



Harris, Dr. Wm. T. IX 

193 
Hartford Co., Conn., S.-S. 

Union III 53 
Hartshorn. W. N. Ill 65, 

74 
Harvard College I 17 
Hebrews VI 126-128 
Hebrew Sabbath- School 

Union VI 126 
Hebrew Union College, 

Cincinnati VI 126, 127 
Heidelberg catechism and 

lessons VI 142, 143, IX 

218 
Herbart IX 180 
Heyer, C. F. VI 132 
Hickey, Rev. M. V 95 
Hicksite Friends VI 125 
Holy Land V 95, 102 
Home Child Culture VIII 6 
Home Class Department 

III 68-73 
Home Department III 71- 

73, 76, VI 140 
Home Department Unions 

III 72 
Home Readings IV 79, 

VIII 166 
Home religious teaching I 

17, VI 113, 125, 143, 147, 

148, VIII 168, IX 174, 

176 
Hours of instruction (See 

Sessions) 
Howland, H. J. VI 117 
House to house visitation 

III 67. 76, IX 226 
Humane Day VI 131 
Humphrey, Pres. II 33 
Hymns VI 117, 146, IX 

179, 199-204 (See Mu- 
sic) 

I 

Illinois III 56, 58, 75, V 
94, 96, VI 119 



264 



Index 



Immigrants VI 137 
India II 43, IV 83, V 102, 

VII 163 

Indiana III 72, VI 119, 

VIII 168 
Indianapolis III 60 
Indians VI 137 
Inductive teaching VI 119, 

120, VI 
Infant class teachers III 

63, VI 117 
Ingathering III 67, IX 226 
Institute, Primary Teach- 
ers' III 62 
Institutes III 66, IV 81, 

V, VI 121. 122, 124, 138, 

148 
Instruction (See Biblical, 

Catechetical, Moral) 
Instruction, Department of, 

— Meth. V 97, 99, VI 

136, 139 

International Bible Read- 
ing Association VIII 166 

International Conventions 
II 48, III 61-73 

International Convention 
System III 55-58, 62, 66, 
76, V 99, IX 194- 226 

International Convention 
Young Men's Chr. As. 
in 59 

International Evangel III 
74, VIII 165 

International Executive 
Committee III 65, 66-68, 

International Lessons il 
35. 48, III 60, 65, IV, VII 
153, 155, VIII 166, 168, 

IX 217 
International Lessons, use 

of VI 115, 116, 120, 122, 
124, 125. 142 
International Lesson Com- 
mittee III 66, IV 83-90. 
VI 123, VII 153 



International Primary Un- 
ion III 64, 65 

International S,-S. Normal 
Committee V 109 

Iowa VI 119, 125 

Ireland III 60, V 102 



Jacobs, B. F. Ill 59, 60, 

75, IV 78, 81-83 
Jacobs, W. B. Ill 75 
Jacobs' lessons VI 124 
Japan III 68, VII 163 
Joint Diocesan Committee 

VI 123 
Joliet, 111 V 94, VI 138 
Judson, Albert II 35, IV 

77 

K 

Kansas III 70 

Kidder, Dr. D. P. V 93, 

VI 138 
Kindergarten VI 146, VII 

158, IX 205 
Kindergarten of the Church 

VI 140 
Knowles, J. D. VI 115 



Ladies* Commission 

(Unit.) VI 148 
Lane, O. W. VI 150 
Lathrop, S. G. Ill 58 
Latter Day Saints VI 128- 

132 
Leonard, Dr. C. H. VI 

151 

Lesson Committee, Inter- 
national III 60, 61, 67, 
IV 83-90 

Lessons II 34, III 60, IV, 
VII 157-163, IX 217-224 
(See various denomina- 
tions) 



Index 



265 



Library, S.-s. II 36, Z7, VI 

118, 149, VIII 164, 165 
Library, traveling VI 126 
Limited Lesson Scheme II 

34, IV 77 ^ ^ 
London, S.-S. Centennial 

in V 108 
London, S.-s. teachers in 

III 61 

London S.-S. Union IV 

79, 84 
Lord, Eleazar II 29 
Lord's Supper (in S.-s.) 

VI 130 (See Mass.) 
Louisville III 62 
Loyal S.-S. Army III 75 
Lutheran Church Review 

VI 133 
Lutherans VI 132, I33» 

141 
Luther's catechisms IX 

218 

M 

Madagascar VIII 172 

Maine II 47 

Mann, Horace VI 148 

Maps V 95, VI 117, IX 
225 

Mason Street S.-S. (Bos- 
ton) II 30 

Mass in S.-s. VI 145, 146, 
147 (See Lord's Sup- 
per) 

Massachusetts I 17, 19, II 
47, III 55, 56, 74 , 

Massachusetts Sabbath- 
School Society VI 118, 

119 

Massachusetts Sabbath- 
School Union VI 118 
May, Robt. II 28 
McCook, H. C. IV 82 
McGrew, G. H. VII 163 
Memorizing (from Bible) 

IV TJ, IX 219-224 



Methodist Book Concern 
VI 135, 136 

Methodist Epis. S.-S. In- 
stitutes V 94, 95, VI 136 

Methodist Epis. S.-S. Un- 
ion IV 80, V 93, 97, 99, 
106-108, VI 135-137 

Methodist instruction I 22 

^Z, V 99-1 1 1, VI 133-136, 

138, 140 
Methodist Kindergarten of 

t. Ch. VI 140 
Methodists IV 94, V 99, 

102, VI 115, 133-140, 152 
Mexico VI 132 
Michigan VI 119 
Miles, W. A. V 96 
Miller, Lewis III 68, V 

99, 100, 103 
Missionaries, S.-s, II 30, 

38-47, 49, III ^(i, VI 119, 

120 
Missionaries, student II 45 
Missionar}^ Chinese II 47 
Missionary, colored II 44 
Missionary lessons VII 

163 
Mississippi River VI 128 
Mississippi Valley Enter- 
prise II 39-43, so 
Models V 97, 98, IX 225 
Montreal V 102 
Moody III 58, 59, n. IV 

78 
Moody Institute, Chicago 

II 49, V III 
Moral Instruction II 26, 

29, IX 173, 178-179 
Moravians VI 113 
Morris, Hattie III di 
Mount Carroll V 95 
Mountford, Mrs. L. Von 

F. V 98 
Murray VI 151 
Music VI 124, 127, 131, 

133, 142, I47» IX 199- 
207 



0,66 



Index 



N 

Nashville VI 117, 142 

National Conventions (See 
Conventions) 

National Convention Or- 
ganization (See Inter- 
national Convention Sys- 
tem) 

National Council (Cong.) 
VI 120 

National Primary Union 
III 62-65, 72, 

National Sunday- School 
Teacher IV 78. 80 

National Union Primary 
S.-S. Teachers III 62 

Nevada III 57 

Newark, N. J. Ill 59, 62 

New England I 17, 21, II 
46, VI 114, 151 

New England educational 
system (early) I 19 

New Hampshire II 47 

New Jersey II 46, III 70 

Newton, Dr. IV 82 

New York II 46, HI 56, 
69, 70, 72, V 96, 99, 104. 
VI 119, 126 

New York City II 29, III 
63, IV 80, VI 121, 123. 
124, 132, 135, 146. VII 
156, 157, VIII 170, 1X200 

New York Primary Teach- 
ers' Union III 63 

New York State S.-S. 
Association III 63 

New York S.-S. Union II 
29, 31, 35^ V 92 

New York Training School 
for Deaconesses V iii 

Nickel Day VI 117, 142 

Nineveh V 97 

Normal classes III 6y, 75, 
V 94, 99, 107, III, VI 

127, 131, 136-139, 144, IX 

215, 216 



Normal College, Meth. S.- 
S. VI 138 

Normal Department III 
76 (Meth.), V 97, 99, 
106, VI 136 

Normal Department, Bap- 
tist, Presb. and Amer. 
S.-S. Union V loi 

Normal Department, Chau- 
tauqua V 106-111 

Normal drills V 95, IX 215 

Normal praxes V 107 

Normal study III 62, 75, 
VI 138, IX 215 

Normal Sunday-Schools 

V93 
Normal Superintendents 

III 75 
North-western Female Col- 
lege, 111. V III 
Nova Scotia V 102 
Nunc Dimittis IX 207 



Ohio VI 119 

Ontario V 102 

Ordnance Survey of Jeru- 
salem V 97 

Ostrander, Dr. J. S. V 98 

Oxford summer meeting V 
105 



Pacific Coast II 46 
Palestine Exploration V 

97 
Pardee, R. G. V 96 
Paris VIII 170 
Park of Palestine V 102 
Paulist Fathers VI 146 
Paumier, H. VIII 170 
Pawtucket, R. I. I 22 
Paxson, Mary II 40 
Paxson, Stephen II 40-42, 

43, 50, III 56 



Index 



267 



Peltz, Geo. A. Ill 61 
Pennsylvania II 30, 46, VI 

122, 124, 141 
Persia II 43, VII 163 
Philadelphia II 26, 31, 35, 
48, 50, III 53, 58, 63, IV 
88, VI 116, 122, 150 
Philadelphia Primary Un- 
ion III 63 
Philadelphia Sunday and 
Adult School Union II 

30, 31, 33 
Pike Co., 111. II 41 
Pilgrim Church, Plymouth 

I 18 
Pilgrim Press, The VI 120 
Pittsburg, Penn. II 28, III 

65 

Plenary Council of Balti- 
more, Third VI 146 

Plymouth I 18, 19 

Pollock, James J. Ill 58 

" Poor whites " II 44 

Prayers, S.-s. VI 127, IX 
204-208 

Prayers for the S.-s. IX 
229 

Preaching on the S.-s. VI 
137, IX 228 

Presbyterians V loi, VI 
119, 140-142, 152 

Presbyterians, Cumberland 
VI 141 

Presbyterians, Southern 
VI 142 

Primary Adaptation IV 
87-89, VI 116, 117, 140, 
146, VII 158-162, IX 201, 
205, 219, 220 

Primary Council III 65 

Primary Department III 
74, 76, V 118, 140, VII 
158 

Primary Teachers' Insti- 
tute III 62 

Primary Unions III 64, 
73 



Primary Workers III 65, 

74 

Primary Workers' Confer- 
ence IV 87 

Providence VI 146 

Provo, academy at VI 131 

Publications — Amer. S.-S. 
Union II 32-37, 43, VIII 
164 

Publications — Philad. S. & 
Adult S. Union II 33 

Public schools I 19, II 26, 
36, V 91, VI 128, 144, 
145, 149, VIII 168, IX 
174-176 

Puritans I 18, 19, VI 114 

Q 

Quarterly Bulletin III 64 
Question Books II 35, IX 
217 

R 

Raikes' System I 20-22, 

VI 134, 150 
Raritan VI 144 
Reformed Church VI 142- 

144 
Revolution, the I 20 
Rewards III 75, VI 147, 

IX 195 
Reynolds, Wm. Ill 59, 65 
Robbins, T. I 19 
Rock River V 94 
Rocky Mountains II 42. 

46, VI 128 
Roxbury, Mass. (S.-s at) 

I 19 
Rush, Benjamin II 26, VI 

150 
Russia II 43 



Salt Lake City VI 129, 
130 



268 



Index 



Sandwich Islands II 43 
Sardinsfield, Mass. VI 121, 

VIII 169 
Savannah, Ga. VI 134 
Scotland III 60, V 102 
Scott Co., 111. Ill S^ 
Scripture-schools VI 124 
Sectarianism I 19, 21 
Selected Uniform lessons 

II 34, IV 78 
Services for children VI 

124, 130, 133, 151, 146, IX 

199-21 1, 226 
Sessions (time of) I 18, 

2Z, VI 127, 129, 132, 134, 

135, 140, 146, IX 225 
Seward, B. J. II 40 
Simpson, Rev. H. M. V 100 
Slater, Samuel I 22 
Smith, Hoke III 73 
Society for the Promotion 

of Christian Knowledge 

VI 119 
South America II 43 
Southern States I 21* II 

44 
Spanish War III 72 
Sparta IX 187 
Spauldirvg, Rev. H. G. V 

93 
Spencer, Mass, VII 153 
Springfield, 111. Ill 58, W 

Standard-Baptist paper IV 

81 
State S. S. Associations II 

46, III 68, 74, 75 
State conventions III 55, 

56, 57, 58, 61 
Stevens, W. A. VII 161 
St. Louis II 42, III 68 
Stuart, Geo. H. Ill 60 
Student Missionaries II 45 
Sunday-School Journal VI 

139 
Sunday-School Teacher IV 
78-81 



Sunday- School Teachers' 

Assembly V 100 
Sunday-School Teachers' 

Quarterly IV 78, 79,80 
Sunday-School Times III 

60, 74, IV 88, VIII 165 
Sunday- School visitors III 

Sunday- School World II 

35 
Sunday-Teachers' Normal 

College VIII 168 
Superintendents VI 130, 

137, 144, IX 184, 191-213, 

226 
Superintendents' Union 

(Cong.) VI 120 
Switzerland VIII 170 
Synod of Dort VI 143 



Teachers' Assembly, S.-S. 

V 100 

Teachers' Association, Ch. 
of the Holy Apostles — 
Phil. VI 122 

Teachers' Institute, Pri- 
mary III 62 

Teachers' Institutes ( See 
Institutes) 

Teachers' Magazine II 35 

Teachers, male VI 131, IX 
215, 228 

Teachers' meetings VI 130 
IX 211, 212 

Teachers, paid I 22, II 28, 

VI 128 

Teachers, voluntary I 23, 

VI .134 
Teaching brotherhoods and 

sisterhoods VI I4t; 
Temperance Lessons IV 

84, 87, 88, VII 163 
Temple Emanuel S. S., N. 

Y. VI 128 
Thacker, Ludwig I 20 



% 



Index 



269 



Theological Seminaries 

IX 196, 198, 229 
Thwing, Pres. Chas. F. 

VII 156 
Toronto, Canada III 62 
Trabert, Dr. VI 133 
Training of S.-S. teachers 

III 62-65, ^T, 75, IV 79, 

V, VI 122, 127, 131, 138, 

139, VIII 168, IX 181, 

213-217, 226 
Training schools for Chr. 

workers V in, VI 121, 

IX 196 
Trumbull, Henry Clay III 

60 
Tucker, Pres. Wm. J. VII 

156 
Turkey II 43, VII 163 
Tyng, Alexander III 59 

U 

Uniform lessons II 34, 48, 

III 60, IV 
Union Graded Lessons 

VII 157 
Union of American He- 
brew Congregations VI 

126 
Unions, rise of I 24, II 
Union S.-ss. II 47 
Unitarians V 93, VI 108, 

114, 147-150 
Unitarian S.-S. Society V 

91, VI 118, 147, 148, 

Western 149 
Unitarian S.-S. Union of 

the Pacific Coast VI 149 
Universalists I 23, VI 150- 

152 
Upper Classes, attendance 

of I 24 
Utah VI 128 



Van Lennep, A. O. V 98 



Vella, Bertha F. Ill 74 
Vermont II 47, III 70 
Vincent, J. H. Ill 60, 69, 
IV 78-82, V 94-97, 99, 
100, 103, III, VI 138, 139, 
140 

W 

Warren V 95 
Washington III 64, VI 

116, VII 168, 169 
Washington, Ct. I 22 
Washington Primary 

Teachers' Union III 64 
Wellspring, The VI 118 
Wells, Ralph V 96 
Wesley, John I 22, 23, 

VI 134 
Western Sabbath School 

Agency VI 119 
Western Unitarian Society 

VI 149 
Westminster Catechisms 

VI 141, 142, IX 218 
Wheelock, Miss Lucy VII 

White, Bp. II 26, 27, VI 

150 
Whittaker lessons VI 124 
Whittle, Major III 59 
Wilder, E. C. Ill 58, 59 
Winchester, 111. II 40, III 

57 
Wisconsin VI 119 
Wise, Dr. V 97, VI 139 
World's S.-S. Convention 

III 68 
Woodruff, A. VIII 169, 

170, 172 
Woodruff, H. C. VIII 

172 

Y 

Young Men's Christian 
Association VI 59 

Yearly Meetings, Friend 
VI 125 



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